A POLICEMAN will tackle the Paris Marathon to help his best friend and colleague, whose life has been torn apart by cancer.

Sergeant Colin Travi will pound the Parisian pavements on April 12 for the The Brain Tumour Charity in honour of a Thames Valley Police officer’s wife who has a brain tumour.

Pc Ian Ledger, based at Kidlington police station, was “devastated” after his wife Jenny was diagnosed with a brain tumour in 2004.

Now Colin Travi, also head of Kidlington Neighbourhood Watch, will raise money for his best friend’s chosen charity as an act of friendship.

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Sgt Travi said this was his second marathon, after he ran the Berlin Marathon in 2013, and he was running 34 miles a week in training.

Sgt Travi said: “In my station it has been important to give Ian the emotional support and I am really looking forward to it. Ian reached out to me because he has been through a lot and I want to do something which is of use.

“I will be thinking of Ian when I run because we have been best friends for six years and I want to help. I ran the Berlin Marathon in 2013 and I am lucky because I am in a running club and I do get the chance to work out.”

Also supporting the cause will be Kidlington’s Central Hair and Barber owner Norman Davis, who will donate £1 to the Brain Tumour Charity from every haircut.

The 2004 diagnosis resulted in Mrs Ledger going into a care home because behavioural changes had left her unable to deal with day to day life.

Pc Ledger said his two children, Sophie, 12, and Morgan, eight, had “lost their mum” but the crisis had “brought the family together”.

The officer, from Steele Claydon in Buckinghamshire, said the support was “touching” and he praised the emotional support of his colleagues.

Mr Ledger said: “All the awareness really helps and it is just so touching that they are doing this.

“What Colin is doing is really touching and his emotional support as a friend has been brilliant.”