CHEERED on by her children, a Wiltshire woman is cycling over 170 miles in memory of her husband, who died of a brain tumour aged just 37.

Sophie Oldacres, from Chippenham, has raised £40k for Brain Tumour Research by peddling between two of late husband Simon's favourite spots from the Eden Project in Cornwall to Westonbirt Arboretum.

In 2013, Sophie’s husband Mr Oldacres was diagnosed with the aggressive and incurable brain cancer glioblastoma.

He died just three years later in 2016 aged 37.

She recalled how cycling became a form of counselling as he dealt with the diagnosis, and he regularly used his bike to get to drs appointments.

Setting off on Friday, she will be joined by 20 other bikers and cheered on by her young children Joseph, 10 and Esther, seven, to cross the finish line.

She said: “Three years on from his death, life really does not get any easier. But it’s my hope that by keeping his memory alive and by raising awareness of brain tumours we can go some way to challenge the unacceptable lack of funding in this area and raise much-needed funds to unlock new research that will make a difference.

“We need to move towards a place where in the future other families facing similar diagnoses have real hope of a cure.

"Simon loved both the Eden Project and Westonbirt and would have loved the thought of us cycling between them. ”

Gordon Seabright from the Eden Project added: “We are delighted that Eden is going to be the starting point for this amazing event and we would like to wish Sophie and all the cyclists taking part the best of luck, raising money for a very worthwhile charity.”

Brain tumours are one of the leading cause of death in children and adults under 40, yet, despite this, brain tumour research receives less than one per cent of national cancer funding.