A woman who made a promise to her husband is now about to fulfil it 16 years after his death.
The last words Tracy Barlow said to her husband Andrew were that she would "make him proud". The 36-year-old died in 2006 after battling a brain tumour for nine years.
But now Tracy, 51, from Southport is all set to run the London Marathon, keeping her promise to her "amazing and "positive" husband. Tracy said when uttering the words she had "no idea" how she would fulfil them, but hopes running the 26-mile race will honour his memory.
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She said: "It's been a long time but it is something that you don't get over. I still think about him and he was such a lovely bloke, very much a people person. He loved life and lived with the brain tumour for so long. He fought everything they threw at him from the chemotherapy to the operations he was determined to fight."
Andrew was diagnosed with a brain tumour just 12 months after he and Tracy married. After a series of operations and six months in remission, the brain tumour came back and he spent the last six weeks of his life at Southport's Queenscourt Hospice.
She continued: "He took it all on the chin and I asked him once how he stayed so positive and he said 'what choice have I got'. So hopefully doing the marathon in his memory will fulfil it."
Tracy is now raising money for the Southport Hospice, she said: "It was Valentine's Day while he was in there and took a print of his hand and put it on a canvass for me. It was just the little things that they did to help me remember him.
"I used running as a stress release when Andrew had cancer and it's how I coped with the situation. However, I'm not going to aim for a time when I run the marathon I just want to enjoy it and take it all in."
If anybody would like to donate to Tracy's page more information can be found here.
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