DURING March 2015, Farnham residents Brenda and Peter Ainsley had some very distressing news, Brenda was told that she had stomach cancer and Peter that he needed a heart bypass operation.

As the situation unfolded their Farnham-born daughter Frankie began weekly watchful visits between work in London and her family in Somerset. Rapidly it all became a nightmare, later made more bearable by surgeon Shaun Preston, and his team at the Royal Surrey County Hospital.

The family also had the support of friends. Brenda was highly active in and around Surrey and Hampshire and touched the lives of many.

A teacher, lay-reader, school governor, magistrate to name but a few, it seemed the community wanted to give back to her as she had given to them.

But over the coming weeks, the cancer became more and more aggressiveBrenda fought bravely with total optimism but in early August her condition worsened and she was admitted to Phyllis Tuckwell Hospice.

In the same week that Peter had his quadruple heart bypass, Brenda died.

Now to help the hospice which cared for Brenda and supported the family through her last days, Frankie and her eldest son, Hugo, are running the London Marathon on April 24.

Frankie said: “I realised that on the gratitude front just saying ‘thank you’ to the hospice wasn’t going to cut it, I wanted to do more. The most running I’ve ever done was for the bus in my heels, so the marathon is a huge personal challenge.

“But I’ll have my wonderful son Hugo beside me running for him, for me, for his grandmother and for the hospice. He is giving me the courage I need to get me through this training and onto the starting line.

“Together we’ll finish it for all the amazing people who are supporting us, for my mother and most particularly for Phyllis Tuckwell. Our aim is to raise £15,000, the cost of one day’s care at the hospice, without which we would have been lost. Any family would be lost. Unimaginable.”

To support Frankie and Hugo as they take on this challenge visit them online on the website at www.just

giving.com/teamdelamain.