A Stevenston woman who lost her husband to cancer while she was receiving treatment for the disease will launch this year’s Race for Life.

Mum of two Shona MacLaren, 34, will be running in the Race for Life in Glasgow Green on May 21 in memory of her late husband Will, who was well known in the community as a basketball coach for the Ayrshire Tornados.

She was diagnosed with cervical cancer in May 2022 while Will was diagnosed with bowel cancer in August and sadly passed away in September – just after she completed chemotherapy treatment.

Shona said: “Will was my rock, my everything. He was a brilliant dad and our daughter Thea was a real daddy’s girl.

“It’s unfair that only two weeks after he took our daughter to school for the first time, we lost him. Although he’s gone from sight, he will always be in our hearts.

“I can’t explain why I survived cancer and Will didn’t. I suffer from survivor’s guilt that I am here and Will isn’t.

“What should have been one of the happiest times in our lives as a young family became the stuff of nightmares.”

Shona hopes that by running in the race she will be able to prevent other families from going through what she and her two children have had to endure.

Five-year-old Thea and one-year-old Mason have been strong through the whole process with Thea even helping her mum cut her hair before chemotherapy.

Shona is thankful that her family have banded together to help her raise Thea and Mason while she grieves the love of her life who died just a week after he was diagnosed on August 23 last year.

She added: “He was right there by my side as he always had been and he promised we’d get through this together.

“My cancer treatment was working but there was nothing to celebrate with so much going on. Will got home on August 29 and deteriorated quickly.

“Will was moved to Ayrshire Hospice where he died on September 1 last year. I couldn’t believe it.

“This was the man I’d loved since I was a teenager, the man I shared my life with, the man I thought I’d grow old with and he was gone.

“Cancer doesn’t discriminate. We all have a reason to Race for Life. For me it will be a Race for a cure, a race for all the families out there who are living with cancer right now.”

To join the Race for Life and help raise funds for Cancer Research UK visit: www.raceforlife.cancerresearchuk.org.