A brave mum who lost her husband to cancer while she was also being treated for the disease has been chosen to launch Race for Life in Scotland.
Shona MacLaren, from Stevenston, lost beloved husband and popular Ayrshire Tornado basketball coach Will, aged 41, to bowel cancer on September 1 last year.
Accountant Shona, who is mum to daughter Thea, five, and one-year-old son Mason, completed chemotherapy treatment for cervical cancer while grieving for the love of her life.
Diagnosed in May last year, Shona began bleeding shortly after the birth of Mason, who was delivered by C-section, in June 2021, with the bleeding getting worse as the months went on.
Following an inconclusive smear test, she was referred to hospital for a colposcopy test.
Shona, 34, said she “could tell by the doctor’s voice that something was wrong.”
She said: “I was told to prepare myself for the results to confirm it was cancer. I was terrified.”
Shona - who underwent nine sessions of chemotherapy, 25 external radiotherapy sessions and four brachytherapy sessions - said she struggled to process the news but husband Will, who she described as “my rock, my everything”, was calm from the start.
“He was right there by my side as he always had been and he promised we’d get through this together”, she said.
But by then IT director Will was experiencing his own health issues, having suffered for years from ulcerative colitis, causing inflammation and sores inside the bowel.
Will was admitted to hospital on August 22 for further tests following two bowel cancer screenings which came back clear.
Just 24 hours later, the couple were devastated to hear that Will had advanced bowel cancer which was terminal.
He died just a few weeks later at Ayrshire Hospice, two weeks after taking daughter Thea to school for the first time.
“I couldn’t believe it”, said Shona, who also tragically lost her mum Winifred Brown to pancreatic cancer when she was just 11.
“This was the man I’d loved since I was a teenager, the man I thought I’d grow old with, and he was gone.
“Will was my rock, my everything. He was a brilliant dad.
“My children mean the world to me and it’s incredibly tough knowing they’ll grow up without their dad.”
Will’s love for basketball was a theme at his funeral, with many of the young people he had successfully coached wearing Jordan trainers as a tribute.
Shona completed cancer treatment in November last year, ringing the bell to mark the successful end of treatment, helped by Thea.
Now, she is determined that no other family should have to go through the heartache she’s endured, and will take part in Scotland’s largest Cancer Research UK Race for Life event on Sunday, May 21 at Glasgow Green, alongside cousin Aileen Mackenzie and nieces Selina, 12, and Mollie, 10.
Shona is encouraging people of all ages and abilities to sign up to their local Race for Life event to raise important funds for life-saving research.
She added: “I don’t know where I’d be now without the support of my cousins, aunts and friends who have looked after me and helped with the children.
“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.
“Cancer doesn’t discriminate.
“It’s vital to play my part to fund research today which I hope will also help beat cancer for future generations.
“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.”
•Sign up at raceforlife.org
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