HER battle against cancer in a bid to see her children grow up proved an inspiration to people across North Yorkshire.

Now Gail Hepworth, whose fight for life tragically ended in June, has inspired the launch of the Gail Hepworth Journey of Hope Fund.

Her husband Dave said he hoped the fund would raise thousands of pounds to help other cancer victims in North Yorkshire.

He said it would give donations to organisations such as Breast Cancer Care in the North, and also to Odyssey, a complementary health centre at Barton on Humber which provides help to people suffering life-threatening illnesses and their partners.

Gail, from Hemingbrough, near Selby, was assisted greatly by the centre.

The fund might also give assistance to someone wanting to go the Schachter Centre in New York. Gail went to the centre for complementary treatment in 1999, after a major fundraising campaign backed by many Evening Press readers.

She returned to England feeling like a new woman, her pain levels much reduced, and lived on for more than two and a half years longer than had been expected.

Dave said a cream tea, tombola and raffle had already been held in Hemingbrough at the home of a former neighbour, Jo Stables, which had been attended by 90 people and raised £1,200. A clay pigeon shoot was also planned this autumn.

But the biggest fundraising event would be on November 30 at the Merchant Adventurers Hall in Piccadilly, when there would be a dance and buffet to music provided by the York Big Band.

He said there would be a raffle with the first prize a holiday for two in New York - a place which had been of great significance to him and Gail because of the treatment she had undergone there. Tickets costing £10 would be available nearer the time.

Dave said he and Gail's children Tom, 14, and Jack, ten, were doing their best to cope with her death.

He said: "We went on holiday and I was like a lost soul. I just miss her so much.

"We used to do everything together.

"But she had time to say goodbye. She finally accepted what was going to happen. She knew the night before she died it would happen.

"She had prepared memory boxes full of things to remember her by, and gave me mine the night before, and the boys received theirs later."

Updated: 09:16 Thursday, September 12, 2002