Dad pounds the streets to raise £££s

Tracey Knuckey, Max Wild, Joanne Wild, Maria Bramley Consultant, and Simon Wild.

A SHAW father put his best foot forward to say thank-you to the people who treated his wife for breast cancer.

Simon Wild’s quest for fitness meant he already had a number of 10k runs under his belt.

But when his wife was diagnosed with cancer, he decided to tackle his biggest running challenge yet to raise money for Oldham’s Link4Pink appeal.

He persuaded friends and work colleagues at Sun Chemical, Newhey, to sponsor him to take part in the Great North Run half marathon in Newcastle.

And he netted more than £600, which he yesterday handed over to the charity at the Victoria Breast Care Unit at the Royal Oldham Hospital.

Simon (36), admitted the run was “quite difficult,” but said his dream now was to run in the London Marathon, “although it might be a few years down the line,” he laughed.

It is three years since his wife, Joanne, got the shock news from doctors that she had breast cancer.

She was pregnant with their second baby, and Simon said: “It was a difficult time for us.”

Joanne underwent a mastectomy at the Royal Oldham Hospital, where she also began a course of chemotherapy before she was sent to the Christie Hospital in Withington, to complete the course and for radiotherapy treatment.

Baby Max, who is almost three, was born soon after, and the couple, who live in Albert Avenue, also have a five-year-old daughter, Lily.