JUST three weeks after Jean Scurlock was pushed around the Race for Life course in her wheelchair last summer, she lost her battle with cancer.

A year later, her daughter Emily Applegate is preparing to run the race in her beloved mum’s memory.

Mrs Applegate, 32, from Foxhill Road, Didcot, said: “Last year’s race was a very emotional day. Mum had wanted to take part with us, but when it came to it she was too poorly, and so we took it in turns to push her wheelchair instead.

“Even so, she loved it and had a brilliant day. It was deeply emotional of course, and there were lots of tears, because we knew this would probably be the last time we would do anything like that together.

“But we raised £1,000 for Cancer Research UK between us and I know mum was thrilled to have taken part.”

Race for Life is Oxford’s biggest fundraising race and this year takes place at University Parks, on Sunday, July 15. Organisers Cancer Research UK hope thousands of women will take part in the 5k event, which raises vital funds for cancer research undertaken in Oxfordshire.

Mrs Applegate and her mum were committed supporters of Cancer Research UK.

Mrs Scurlock, a former fitness instructor, was diagnosed with lung cancer in 2010, but the 66-year-old mother-of-three raised more than £1,750 for charity and tested a new drug before she died at Sobell House Hospice on July 31, last year.

Mrs Applegate is the manager of the Cancer Research UK charity shop in Broadway, Didcot – where her mum was a volunteer member of staff for two years.

She said: “Through my job I have seen how the money we raise in the shops and in Race for Life is spent and how it actually helps people.

“My mum was an amazing woman and she will be right at the front of my mind when I take part in Race for Life this year.”

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  • The Oxford Mail would like to hear from other women and teams of women taking part in this year’s Race for Life. Please email us at news@nqo.com