Emmerdale star Tony Audenshaw has shared a heartbreaking final message from his late wife, who died in 2017 following a battle with pancreatic cancer.
The actor has featured in the ITV soap as Bob Hope for more than 20 years, so has a platform when it comes to raising awareness of the illness. This week, he revealed the dying wish left from his wife Ruth, who was married to him for 24 years before her death.
Before she died, Ruth left her husband a message, requesting that if he was to run the London Marathon again, he do it to raise money for charity Pancreatic Cancer UK.
Keen runner Audenshaw has run the London Marathon an impressive 15 times, but stopped taking part when Ruth was first diagnosed with the disease in 2015.
He is now hoping to run the race this year, eight years on from his wife's death.
The actor hopes to raise money to go towards the development on new diagnostic tests for pancreatic cancer, which could save thousands of lives if implemented.
Emmerdale star Tony Audenshaw's wife Ruth died of pancreatic cancer in 2017
PA
"It just felt right," he explained as he talked about running the London Marathon again this year.
"She left all her friends and family a card to read after she died, and in it she said, 'If you run London again, will you do it for pancreatic cancer?'"
Speaking to PA, he noted: "She also then added something like, 'no pressure, if you don't fancy it don't', which is very Ruth."
The actor has spoken publicly in the past about his wife's death at the age of 42, appearing on This Morning in 2022 to raise awareness of the lethal disease and potential ways of spotting it early.
"With pancreatic cancer, over half the people die within three months of diagnosis," he told the ITV programme.
"It's been the case since the '70s, it's really been left behind regarding funding."
He explained how Ruth was initially told her tumour was "inoperable," but the couple found a doctor in Germany who was able to perform the surgery.
Heartbreakingly, two months later, Ruth was told her cancer had spread.
"Part of the thing when you have surgery is that you can't have chemotherapy for a little while because, obviously chemotherapy kills the good cells as well as the bad cells, so while it was all clinging together, some cells got loose," he detailed.
"It was quite devastating because it was probably two months after the operation that we found out it had spread already."
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Tony Audenshaw has run 15 London Marathons in the past
Getty
Reflecting on his late wife's tenacity, he went on: "Ruth went on her last harsh chemotherapy and there were days when she was really tired and couldn't do much, but on the days where she felt good, she was doing stuff.
"She met up with friends, she carried on cycling because she loved cycling and it was a case of not being stuck in the hospital all the time or going for appointments all the time - getting out on that bike and feeling the wind on her hair.
"It was just brilliant, we did loads of stuff, we went on loads of breaks and when she was well enough, we did things."
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