LAST June, as Tracy Dixon's husband Paul lay in the John Radcliffe Hospital undergoing gruelling cancer treatment, she joined 8,000 other women in running five kilometres for the Cancer Research UK Race for Life.

This year, Tracy, her sister-in-law and her mother-in-law will take part in Race for Life again, but Paul will also be running - with his dad and his brother-in-law in Oxford's first Race for Moore.

Mother-of-one Mrs Dixon, 31, from Burford, said: "The women will be doing Race for Life on the morning of June 8 and then we'll cheer the men on in the Race for Moore that afternoon."

The show of unity marks the end of a traumatic year. Mrs Dixon said: "Paul had a lump in his neck for a long time, but all the tests he had came back negative. Then in January last year we were told he had Hodgkins Lymphoma.

"More tests followed to see how advanced it was and we learned it was in a lymph node - then in March, Paul started treatment.

Mr Dixon, 34, a groundworker for a building firm, endured six-months of intensive chemotherapy, but there were still traces of cancer, so he had to undergo more chemo and then radiotherapy.

The week before Christmas, 2007, Mr Dixon was given the all-clear, but his condition will be closely monitored for years.

Mrs Dixon enrolled to take part in the Race for Life 2007 with Paul's mother Jean Dixon, 56, and his sister Sally Cambray, 32.

Mrs Cambray, from Ascott-under-Wychwood, said: "The men in the family said it was shame there wasn't something they could take part in too, then we heard about Race for Moore."

  • Find out more at www.cancerresearchuk.org or call 0207 121 6699.

Organised by the Bobby Moore Fund for Cancer Research UK, the 5km men-only Race for Moore takes place at Oxford University Parks on June 8.

It is named after the England's 1966 World Cup winning captain and former Oxford City manager Bobby Moore, who died of cancer in 1993, aged 51.