A MAN who lost his mother to cancer will pay tribute to her by running the Flora London Marathon.

Martin Wilcock, 33, an illustrator, of Brown Hill Drive, Blackburn, will on Sunday tackle the gruelling 26.2 miles to raise money for Cancer Research UK, which pioneers treatment and cures for cancer.

Martin, a keen cyclist, was in Australia for Christmas when his mother, Catherine, 59, was diagnosed with liver cancer. She died before he could return.

Martin said: "I was visiting relatives and doing a bit of biking. I'd been there for two months but came straight home.

"My mum had battled breast cancer earlier last year and had a mastectomy. She became ill again at Christmas and was taken into hospital, where she was diagnosed with cancer of the liver. She deteriorated very quickly soon after and died."

Martin ran the Blackpool marathon last June, finishing in just over three hours.

His father, John Wilcock, spoke with pride about his son's ability to excel at anything he put his mind to. He said: "John entered the Blackpool marathon last year with no training but still finished twentyfourth out of six hundred. He's a very talented young man."

This year John has been training at the gym and hopes to beat the time he ran in Blackpool. He said: "The winning time is about two hours, ten seconds. I'm in the second fastest group and hope to finish in under three hours.

"Unfortunately, two friends of mine I used to run with have also died from the disease, so it was an easy decision to run for the cancer research charity".

Professor Gordon McVie, Joint Director General at Cancer Research UK, said: "It's great to have Martin in our marathon team.

"We rely overwhelmingly on support from the public in our work to find cures for cancer."