Widow challenged to Great North Run by late wife

Debbie's wife, firefighter Lindsay Bowling-Mowatt (pictured right), died last year

A widow was challenged to take on the Great North Run by her late wife, as part of a "huge list" of activities for her to do.

Firefighter Lindsay Bowling-Mowatt, who was a crew manager at Northumberland Fire and Rescue Service, died last September, 16 months after she was diagnosed with glioblastoma, a type of brain tumour.

Before she passed away, she wrote a list of challenges for her wife Debbie to take on - one of them was to run the Great North Run for The Brain Tumour Charity.

Debbie Bowling-Mowatt and a team, including Lindsay's former colleagues from the fire service, will take on the half marathon from Newcastle to South Shields on 8 September.

The couple, who were together for 30 years, had trained alongside each other for a Couch to 5K while Lindsay was receiving chemotherapy.

"That's when she made me promise to do the Great North Run," Mrs Bowling-Mowatt said.

"It's coming up to nearly a year since Lindsay passed, this just means the absolute world to me and everybody else that's doing it - I just want to get over that finish line."

Another of the challenges will see her complete a skydive tomorrow.

Lindsay Bowling-Mowatt was a crew manager firefighter at Northumberland Fire and Rescue Service and "always had a smile on her face" going to work

For the Great North Run, Mrs Bowling-Mowatt gathered a team to complete it with her, which has been named "Team LBM".

They include Lindsay's sister, her palliative consultant, her kickboxing coach, and her former boss, Northumberland's Chief Fire Officer Graeme Binning.

Mr Binning said it was a "huge privilege" to be asked.

"It's [the Great North Run] always a celebration of life but there's always a significant amount of emotion on the start line," he added.

Debbie has been training with "Team LBM" alongside Lindsay's former boss, Northumberland's Chief Fire Officer Graeme Binning

Mrs Bowling-Mowatt said the team was raising money for the charity to help fund further research, and almost £2,000 has been raised so far.

She said: "I am not a runner but I did promise that I would do that for The Brain Tumour Charity, and try and raise awareness about glioblastoma and get some funding to see if we can get any further forward for people in the future.

"Lindsay was a fighter and from day one she never stopped, never gave up and gave her all to survive and stay with us."