Ms Parkes set up the Joanna Simpson Foundation, external, which seeks to support children who experience domestic abuse and homicide.
“We’re a team, Hettie and I. We have been wonderful to each other, really. Hettie’s just been a total star.
“I just hope that [recognition] means people are aware that in a domestic abuse situation, it isn’t just the perpetrator and the victim. So often the children are ignored and left in a terrible state,” Ms Parkes told BBC Breakfast.
“Of both parents, one might be locked up, the other dead. It’s the most awful situation for these children – put in care, fostered, taken away from all of the things that they know. It’s just so awful and we just wanted to make people aware that these children need support, love, hope and protection.”
Ms Barkworth-Nanton, who chairs the domestic violence charity Refuge, external, said: “I think when you go through something like this…where Robert Brown was found guilty of manslaughter not murder, and the deep injustice that comes from that, I think that’s when we started fighting together.
“It’s that fight in both of us that’s kept us going. Sometimes I lose a bit of energy and fight and sometimes [Ms Parkes] loses a bit of energy and fight and we just pick each other up. It’s amazing actually.”
The Pride of Britain Awards will be broadcast on ITV1 on Thursday from 20:00 BST.