ALEX Lewis’ relatives will gather tomorrow to remember and celebrate the life of the tragic former St Birinus School pupil.

It will be a year since he died aged 22 from bone cancer but among the inevitable tears will be pride at the £64,000 raised in his memory and a determination to raise that to seven figures.

Alex, a sixth former at Wallingford School, was the subject of a TV documentary Alex: A Life Fast Forward, which told how he coped with the disease and married Ali Strain on his 22nd birthday. He died five days later.

Ali, 24, who lives in London and works for a TV production company, said: “On Alex’s birthday we had a big crowd of people round at his house in Brightwell-cum-Sotwell and we invited ushers from the wedding and our best friends.

“We went for a long walk and had a nice dinner and my sister made a birthday cake.

“It was a celebration rather than a down day. Alex was such a fun person that he would have been mortified if we had all been sitting around looking miserable.”

Tomorrow Ali will join Alex’s mum Angela, 53, dad Andy, 62, sister Emma Parr, 28, and brother Jamie, 27.

She added: “We might visit one of Alex’s special places.”

Since Alex’s death, the Lewis family has encouraged people to make donations to the Bone Cancer Research Trust, with the Wallingford community raising about £64,000 in his memory to date.

The biggest fundraising event was a walk in October involving 1,300 people, including 1,200 pupils from Wallingford School.

Mum Angela, who lives in Church Lane, said: “Over the past year, the support from the local community has been incredible and that has been a huge comfort to us.

“The walk raised £23,348 for the trust, which will make a big difference to those conducting research into the disease.

“Bone cancer is not one of the most high-profile cancers and the survival rate in the past 20 years has improved so little.

“It hits young people and very often the problem is late diagnosis — some people think it is growing pains.”

Mrs Lewis, who volunteers for the trust on a part-time basis, said she regularly watched the documentary about her son, made by documentary maker David Dugan, who also comes from Brightwell-cum-Sotwell.

She added: “The film is a huge comfort and I’m a bit addicted — I watch it a lot.”

More fundraising will be held this year, with the family hoping to hold a concert at Dorchester Abbey.

* For further information about the Bone Cancer Research Trust, visit bcrt.org.uk