A MOTHER originally from Narberth has spoken of her ‘anxiety’ about her son joining the Kurdish militia in Syria to fight Islamic State (IS).

Adele Proctor, now a performing arts teaching in Bristol, thought that her 27-year-old son Josh was on holiday in Turkey when she heard about a bombing at Istanbul airport.

Now an Aberystwyth university student, Josh was born in Pembrokeshire.

Adele believed that he was meant to be in the airport at the time of the bombing and she instantly feared the worst.

Adele told the BBC: “I was teaching a class and one of the students said something about a bombing at Istanbul Airport. I burst into tears. Josh was due to be flying home at that time.

“I left the classroom and tried to phone his mobile. It said the phone was no longer available.”

However, as Adele tried to find out his exact whereabouts, she found out from her ex-partner and Josh’s father that he was actually fighting with the Kurdish Protection Units (YPG).

Her initial relief at the news that he was not in Istanbul airport soon turned into a different type of concern.

Adele said: “Then it dawned on me where Kurdistan actually was – it is a region in northern Syria and Iraq.

“I spent the next few days completely spun out, trying to get my head around what could happen to him, and the fact I couldn’t do anything about it.”

Soon the pieces of the puzzle all fell into place for Adele as she recalled his final actions before he left.

“He isn’t usually a man of many words. But as he left he gave me a massive hug and looked at me and said ‘I really love you mum’.

“Now I think he was making sure I knew he loved me in case he didn’t come back.”

Adele said that she always knew Josh was ‘going to do something political’ but never dreamed she would find herself in this situation.

After Adele finally  was able to make contact with him, she told the BBC of her ‘deep panic’ every time she went without speaking to him.

She said: “He said essentially he was in a warzone and that there would be times that he wouldn’t be able to get in touch.

“Often my only way of knowing if he was alive was seeing if he had been online.

“I became really obsessed with Facebook and Messenger and as long as I saw that green light next to his name from when he’d last logged on, that was okay.

“The longest I didn’t hear from him was eight weeks.

“I just had to have this blissful ignorance in my attitude towards him when I didn’t hear from him. But underneath there was a deep panic all of the time.

“I knew if he needed me I wouldn’t be able to get to him. But I also knew if he died when he was out there, he was doing something that he wanted to do and I would have to respect that.”

Josh returned to the UK at the end of last year, however he was questioned by police upon his arrival and his flat in Aberyswyth was also searched.

When he returned home, Adele spent hours talking with him about his experiences fighting with the Kurdish militia.

She said: “I was so angry with him but I didn’t say that. It was like he needed to debrief, to tell someone about the things he had seen and what he had been through.

“I asked him to be really honest about some of the things he had seen because I didn’t want him hiding anything from me. How could I support him if I didn’t know?

“He was bombed twice. One time he was having a cigarette on the roof a building, and the other side – where everyone else was – was bombed. He was the only survivor.

“And his good friend Ryan Lock died a week after Josh left – if he had still been there he would have been with him.

“So that night he wanted to have a drink with me and remember all those who had been lost. He looked older. He was less naive.”

But Adele’s stress didn’t end on Josh’s return, as a copy of the Anarchist’s Cookbook which was found under his bed was leading to him being prosecuted under the Terrorism Act.

Last month he was cleared at Birmingham Crown Court, however Adele said she ‘ended up on anti-anxiety medication’ due to the legal ordeal.

“They were trying to say that an extremist could have gone into Josh’s bedroom in Aberystwyth and found that information and gone off and committed an act of terrorism. Thankfully the jury cleared him,” she said.

Adele concluded that she is now happy just to have her son back and hopes that some day she can add a graduation picture of her son in her house.