AN Ilminster mum-of-five has raised more than £3,000 for a charity very close to her heart after completing the London Marathon.

Louise Peachey raised the money for The Brain Tumour Charity after losing her husband Mark to the cruel disease.

She kept her promise to run the 26-mile race in memory of her husband Mark who ran the race twice before he died of a brain tumour in April 2003.

"At 39, I'm the same age Mark was when he passed away and it felt the right time to do it," said Louise, from Dowlish Wake.

"And, as I'm hitting the big 4-0, I wanted to challenge myself and raise money for research into brain tumours to save other families going through the same heartache.

"Mark was a keen runner. I never ran before I met him, but used to go out with him and competed in 5k, 8k and 10k races."

Cheered on by husband Stuart and children Lydia and Amelia, 11, Emmeline and Freddie, 5, and 16-month-old Mrytle, as well as her brother Peter who travelled from his home in Germany to show his support, Louise notched up a time of 5 hours 46 minutes to raise over £3,300 for the charity.

She said: "Crossing the finishing line was a fantastic feeling. I even did the school run on Monday morning, but my legs were pretty stiff.

"After all the hours of training, I'm so happy I completed the Marathon and raised money for such a brilliant cause."

Last Monday, Emmeline and Freddie wore 'My mum ran the London Marathon' t-shirts to Greenfylde School and took her medal in to show off at assembly on Friday.

Mark passed away while Louise was seven weeks pregnant with twin daughters Lydia and Amelia. Before his chemo and radio therapy, Mark banked sperm and Louise had IVF treatment.

Six years after Mark's death from an astrocytoma tumour, Louise gave birth to another set of twins, Emmeline and Freddie, as she had stored frozen embryos from her IVF treatment. In 2012, she married Stuart and they have a 16-month-old daughter, Myrtle.

Sarah Lindsell, chief executive of The Brain Tumour Charity, said: "We are so grateful to Louise and our 123 other London Marathon runners who have, so far, raised over £200,000 for us."

"All her hard work and achievement will help us fund vital research in our battle to defeat brain tumours – the biggest cancer killer of children and adults under 40 in the UK."