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 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 40, 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 her husband Stuart and children Lydia and Amelia, 11, Emmeline and Freddie, 5, and 16-month-old Myrtle, as well as her brother Peter, 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.”

Mark passed away while Louise was seven weeks pregnant with twin daughters Lydia and Amelia.

Before his chemo and radiotherapy, 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-monthold daughter, Myrtle.