AN OXFORDSHIRE widow battled her emotions and winds of 75mph to walk 186 miles in memory of her husband on their first wedding anniversary.

When Cassie Watson, from Great Milton, last visited the Pembrokeshire coast in August it was her last holiday with her husband Ed before he died just three weeks later.

The 35-year-old said returning to the place she had spent so many happy times with her husband was like ‘going back to a warzone’.

But the St Edward’s School matron braved Storm Doris and her emotions over 14 days to raise almost £14,000 for research into sarcoma – the rare cancer that killed her husband.

She said: “It’s the first time I have been back to Pembrokeshire, and so many of the places I passed were places we had been together.

“It might sound dramatic but it was like going back to a warzone, I knew I needed to face it but it was so hard being there without him.

“There’s a lot of sadness now associated with it for me but it’s also such a beautiful place full of happy memories and I had incredible support from family and friends who joined me at various stages.”

The couple first met in 2012 and instantly fell in love – but in June 2014 the same week they moved in together, Ed, a shooting instructor, was diagnosed with sarcoma.

After nine months of treatment he went into remission and the couple started planning their lives together.

His cancer returned at the start of last year and the couple married on February 19 at St Mary the Virgin church in Great Milton.

Two days later Ed, who was 49, went back to hospital for treatment but died in August.

Three weeks before his death the pair shared their last holiday together in Pembrokeshire.

She said: “Ed was everything I had ever wanted. He was the kindest, funniest, handsomest and most unique person I had ever known and almost overnight I knew what real, magical, forever love was meant to feel like.

She added: “On that holiday in August he was so determined to drive me down here despite being ill.

“He was so happy on that holiday and looks so happy in a picture I took at St Justinian’s – I returned to that exact spot on Sunday on the anniversary of our wedding, I just felt I had to.”

Family and friends joined her for various stints of walking along the coast and Thursday’s quota of miles was rudely interrupted by Storm Doris.

Winds of more than 75mph battered the Pembrokeshire coastline and Mrs Watson admitted things got ‘pretty hairy’ at times.

She completed her walk with a 13-mile trek on Friday.

p To donate to her cause for the Royal Marsden Cancer Charity go to justgiving.com/fundraising/walk-for-ed