A HUSBAND who lost his wife to cancer just weeks ago has vowed to support the hospice which cared for her in her final days.

Kelly Pope, who was told her bowel cancer was terminal in December, died at Headington’s Sobell House Hospice on June 3.

Now her husband Richard, who lives in Stanford in the Vale, is gearing up for a fundraising sponsored gym session tomorrow with friends and relatives at Kidlington and Gosford Leisure Centre in his wife’s memory.

The 37-year-old said: “We are trying to do a little bit for Sobell House.

“I’ve seen first hand the level of care that they give and it’s not just the patients, it’s close loved ones as well.

“They can’t do enough for you.”

Mrs Pope was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in April 2012 and needed emergency chemotherapy at London’s Charing Cross Hospital.

She lost her 55-year-old mother Jayne Trinder, from Southmoor, to skin cancer three months later and had an ovary removed in October 2012.

Mrs Pope was diagnosed with bowel cancer in April 2013, just days after her grandfather Tom Ibell, from Wantage, passed away.

She had part of her liver and bowel removed three months later while undergoing chemotherapy at the Churchill Hospital and was told she had months to live after suffering a cardiac arrest last December.

Mrs Pope, who was a senior pharmacy technician at the John Radcliffe Hospital for 17 years, moved into Sobell House in the middle of May.

The couple had been married for five years.

Mr Pope, who works in the Oxford Mail’s field sales and advertising department, said he was touched that about 400 people attended his wife’s funeral at Oxford Crematorium on Thursday, June 18.

Family and friends travelled from across the country, and wore purple and ginger wigs for the occasion to honour a funeral request by Mrs Pope.

During the funeral, they raised about £1,100 for the hospice.

Mr Pope said: “It showed what sort of a person she was, how loved she was.

“Her attitude to life was an inspiration to a lot of people. She was the life and soul of the party.

“She was the most upbeat person anyone could wish to meet.

“Even at Sobell House, she would always make sure she thanked the nurses.

“She would apologise if she asked them to do something.”