A man who lost his wife to cancer in May is asking Herald readers to help him reach his fundraising target for Sobell House Hospice, Oxford.

Stephen Cannon, 52, was joined by 15 family members and friends on the Oxford Moonlight Stroll last month, walking nine miles through the city at night-time to raise funds for the hospice, where his wife Kelly had died less than two months earlier.

Mrs Cannon lost a four-year battle with ovarian cancer on May 3, just two weeks before her 53rd birthday.

Mr Cannon, 24-year-old son Matthew, and 22-year-old daughter Lyndsey led the group on the annual fundraiser, but finished £400 short of their £5,000 fundraising target.

They hope readers who may have known Mrs Cannon will help raise the rest.

Mr Cannon said: “We did the walk for the first time last year, and it was quite an event. Sadly, Kelly was not really well enough to go on it.

“This year, 16 of us did it again and wanted to raise £5,000. It is only a number, but it would be nice to raise a bit extra.

“There will be a lot of people who knew Kelly, but did not know we were doing this walk and may like to donate some money.”

Mrs Cannon, a PA at WHSmith headquarters in Swindon and a member of Charlton Primary School PTA and the local play group in Wantage, had been attending the Sobell House day centre for three years, before spending her last weeks in the hospice’s care.

Her husband said: “At the end of March, she had had five courses of chemotherapy, and was told it was not going to do any more.

“She went from the Churchill Hospital to Sobell House and had seven weeks there before she passed away.

“Just like Ali Booker, who she knew through chemotherapy sessions and as they both lived in Wantage, she would never say she was brave. She just got on with it.

“She would always say she was fine when she wasn’t. She never complained.”

He added: “Sobell House was fantastic. They are so caring and look after not just the patients, but the family as well, offering counselling sessions after my wife passed away.

“I cannot imagine what it would have been like if she had to spend her last days in the John Radcliffe rather than the hospice.”

The annual Oxford Moonlight Stroll, which starts and finishes at St Edward’s School, last year raised £100,000 for the hospice, with 1,100 people joining the nine-mile walk on a route around the city.

To donate go to www.justgiving.com/teamkc