Car worker Steve Merrow-Smith and his wife Barbara used to love playing together in a silver band, writes Andrew Ffrench.

But they stopped performing with the Chinnor band last year when mum-of-two Barbara, 45, developed the blood disorder, leukaemia.

Her sister Mandy donated her bone marrow for a transplant, but complications set in and Barbara died last September at Oxford's John Radcliffe Hospital. Her grieving husband Steve, 44, of High Street, Wheatley, needed something to distract him from his loss and decided to take up running. Six months on, he is ready to compete in tomorrow's London Marathon, and hopes to raise £2,000 for the Foundation for Children with Leukaemia.

Steve said: "Barbara and I had known each other for 25 years.

"We were both musicians and used to do gigs around the area.

"When she died I had never felt so low, but my daughter Gemma, who is 22, and son William, 19, have been there for me and we have all tried to support each other." Steve, who works at Unipart in Cowley, will be running the marathon with his other sister-in-law, Valerie.

He added: "Preparing for the marathon and raising the sponsorship has made me feel like I am doing something positive.

"Leukaemia can develop at any time and the more money that can be raised for research purposes, the better." Sunday will be Steve's first marathon. "I have completed a 20-mile run during training, so I should be OK," he added.

The Foundation for Children with Leukaemia has assigned more than £5m to hospital projects across Britain.

Story date: Saturday 17 April

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.