'It breaks my heart every day: Widow's pain after husband killed by van driver

Shrewsbury Town fan and father-of-two Danni Pitchford, 35, was killed when he was hit by a van while at work in his home town of Whitchurch three days before Christmas last year.

Mr Pitchford, who was a scaffolder, suffered fatal injuries and died at the scene in Sedgeford after he was hit by a Ford Transit driven by 27-year-old Mark Hughes.

Hughes, of Edgeley Gardens, Whitchurch, whose vision was restricted by a fogged up windscreen, pleaded guilty to death by careless driving and was sentenced to 180 hours of unpaid work and banned from the road for 15 months.

Mr Pitchford's widow Nichole told how her husband's death has impacted her, and how he was the "glue" that held the family together.

The couple first met at Shrewsbury Fields Forever festival and married in 2016. He is survived by children Tia, 14, and three-year-old Lennon.

"It has ruined my life," said Nichole. "He was such a big personality and the hole he has left is immense.

"Having been in a relationship for over 10 years, our lives have intertwined so much that it is hard to imagine life before we met.

"Danni and I have our son Lennon together, he also had a daughter Tia from a previous relationship. We were all so close.

"Danni was always wanting to do stuff. He would be up at 5.30am each morning. He wanted to go out to find the next adventure, whether that was going out to the coast to watch the kids play in the arcades or heading off in the caravan he always wanted to be having fun. He made the house very special doing this.

"He had just bought Tia a go kart so they could go racing together as their relationship was incredible. Tia loved coming to our house as it is in the country, and she can go out on her bike along the canal. But she will never know how it feels to race with her dad and do the fun things he wanted to do with her as she grew up into a young woman."

She added: "Danni idolised Lennon. Prior to him I had had five miscarriages. Danni always had friends at our house, and due to this Lennon was always having fun with his dad and those who came here. That could have been in the garage building stuff together or just playing in the garden.

"We had a caravan for our holidays, I am not able to tow a caravan so I have had to sell it. This was such a big part of our lives as it was all about family time.

"Going forward is a struggle every day, some days are better and some are worse than others. I can be just sat down and the emotions flood over me. I can’t sleep and panic attacks are a regular thing.

"I just think why us? What did Lennon do to deserve not to be able to remembering his dad growing up and the same for Tia. Why us?

"It is so traumatic, I am going to have to sit the kids down at some stage and explain exactly what happened. It breaks my heart every day.

"One thing Tia and Lennon will never go without is my love and the knowledge of how much their dad loved them."