A GREIVING widow has organised sponsored walks across the globe to remember her “wonderful” husband who died of a brain tumour at 39.

Shaz Hetherington, of Woodford Green, her five-year-old daughter Layla and three-year-old son Daniel were left devastated when David lost his six-year battle with the cancer in November last year.

Less than a year later the Hetheringtons have organised “The World’s Local Walk” to mark what would have been his 40th birthday and to raise money for charity Brain Tumour Research.

On Sunday (August 6) Mrs Hetherington and her children will lead 100 of David’s relatives, friends, and colleagues on five and 10 kilometre routes around London.

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The Walk4David40 event will start at the HSBC tower in Canary Wharf where the couple met and will be mirrored by David’s parents John and Judith in Carlisle, his brother John on holiday on the Greek island of Kos, and by other friends in Bulgaria, Brisbane and Sydney, Australia.

Mrs Hetherington, 40, said: “I know that the walk will be a very emotional occasion but it is so important to us that we mark what would have been David’s 40th birthday and to celebrate his life.

“We are calling it ‘the world’s local walk’ as people will be taking part in such a variety of locations.

“David fought so bravely and never once complained about what he was going through.

“He was an avid fundraiser himself and even after his diagnosis he didn’t let cancer stop him, completing the London Three Peaks Challenge in 2015 and the memorial walk for The Alzheimer’s Society in 2016.”

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David and Shaz got together after working on nearby desks at HSBC, striking up a romance, which eventually turned into a proposal in December 2008.

Mrs Hetherington said: “He was just a really funny guy, the type of person who could make anyone laugh.

“David was so inclusive, no matter what walk of life you were from, and he had this rare and wonderful ability to bring people together.”

Despite his Christian background, David converted to Islam when the couple got married in February 2010.

Within just a few months of their marriage and when Shaz was pregnant with their daughter his speech started to slow, which eventually doctors told him was down to a non-cancerous oligoastrocytoma brain tumour.

David was told things could change over the next five to 10 years and needed to be tested every six months.

But as the years went by he started to struggle with chronic headaches and doctors soon told him his tumour was now at life-threatening stage four.

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After “gruelling” chemo, radio, and immunotherapy, the family made the most of their time together by going on holidays abroad in between his quarterly scans.

But in July 2016 David has his first serious seizure and was rushed to hospital.

He went on to have regular ones, which his wife said was “heart-breaking” to try to prepare their young children for.

She said: “His personality really changed – it was almost like he switched off, he would sit in a chair and do nothing.

“David was in such a lonely place and I felt frustrated, sad, and lonely as my role changed from wife to carer.”

After a period of being looked after by his wife and mother at home, David was moved to Woodland Grove care home in Loughton where he spent his last three weeks.

Mrs Hetherington says the “exceptional” care meant he was able to watch sport on TV and spend quality time with the family before he died on November 24.

On Sunday the Hetheringtons will release 40 balloons on their walk – one for each year of David’s life.

They hope the money raised will help take the Government’s brain tumour research fund from £30 to £35 million a year, in line with breast cancer and leukaemia.

Brain Tumour Research’s London community fundraising manager Janice Wright said: “For too long, brain tumours have been a neglected cancer. Stories like David’s remind us all that we cannot allow this desperate situation to continue.

“We are extremely grateful to David’s family, friends and colleagues for helping us to shine a light on the underfunding for research into brain tumours.”

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