Zena to Walk All Over Cancer in memory of her husband and brother

Zena Cahill decided to take on the charity's Wall All Over Cancer challenge in memory of her husband and brother who died of cancer within two years of each other.

Walk All Over Cancer involves walking 10,000 steps every day in March to help support Cancer Research UK’s life-saving research.

Zena, who works at the Wellington Cancer Research UK shop, is being sponsored to walk as many of those 10,000 steps as she can.

“I’m crippled with arthritis so I’m often in a lot of pain but I want to try and do this to honour the memory of my brother Andy and my husband Mick,” said Zena, who has two children and five grandchildren.

“My brother was my best friend so it was hard caring for both him and my husband within such a short time. I miss them both terribly so I began volunteering in the shop three and a half years ago because I felt I needed to do something to help beat cancer.”

Zena cared for Andy after he had a fall at work that led to him being diagnosed with cancer in his hip bone. The cancer eventually spread to his lungs and brain and he died in February 2009, aged just 51, leaving a wife and two grown up children.

Two years later Zena’s husband Mick, aged 52, began to feel generally unwell with what doctors thought was polyps in his kidney. By the time scans diagnosed kidney cancer, the disease had already begun to spread to his brain.

“We’d been together 26 years and we’d been quite happy plodding along but we decided to get married two months before he died,” said Zena, from High Ercall.

“We had a lovely wedding and Mick was really happy, though exhausted by the end of it. Looking back at the pictures you wouldn’t know he’d been ill.

“That’s the problem with some cancers, you don’t know about them until it’s too late. That’s why I decided to volunteer in the shop – because I’m passionate about raising money for research that will one day beat this terrible disease.

“It’s not going to be easy for me but the shop staff are behind me and sponsoring me for every step I take.”

One thing that will make it a little easier for Zena will be her Shi Tzu puppy Bobby who she bought as a companion in 2013.

“Bobby was born exactly a year to the date of Mick’s funeral,” said Zena. “He came to me 12 weeks later and he changed my life tremendously. He comes everywhere with me and I don’t know what I’d do without him now. We’ll be taking on the challenge together so I hope our efforts will inspire other people to either donate or take part.”

To sign up and receive a free fundraising pack and t-shirt, visit cruk.org/walkallover.