A DEVOTED wife ran Race for Life before rushing home to renew her vows with her terminally ill husband in the “perfect tribute” to the love of her life.

Maria Hobbs and her 64-year-old husband Lloyd, who has incurable brain cancer, renewed their wedding vows in the garden of their Christchurch home on June 15.

Maria said: “This was my tribute to him. He has been absolutely remarkable. He is an amazing man and has never complained once.”

The ceremony was organised in just three days after Lloyd, who was diagnosed with a grade four tumour in May last year, told a friend he’d like to renew his vows for the couple’s 14th wedding anniversary.

“Last year Lloyd was in the Macmillan unit at Christchurch Hospital and I told him hurry up and get better so we could renew our vows,” Maria said.

“This year my friend asked him what he would like to do for our anniversary and he said we were renewing our vows. At first she didn’t tell me because she thought it would upset me.”

After hearing about Lloyd’s wish the following week, Maria immediately got to work planning their big day.

“All the family were coming down for the race, all the children and the grandchildren, so I thought why not do it on the same day,” she said.

“It was Father’s Day as well so it was very apt.”

Maria raised £3,000 for Cancer Research UK after completing the 10km race with her daughter and step-daughter before returning home for the ceremony.

Describing her husband as her “soul mate and best friend”, she said: “If we had spent weeks trying to put it together it couldn’t have been any better.

“It was a magical day.”

Warning over signs of brain cancer

MARIA Hobbs is now calling for more people to be aware of the symptoms of brain cancer following her husband’s sudden diagnosis.

“He was diagnosed completely out of the blue,” she said.

“A lot of people we have met through the way say they had headaches and things but Lloyd didn’t have anything like that.”

The couple first realised something was wrong when Maria noticed slight changes in Lloyd’s personality and memory lapses.

She said: “He was a little bit short which was totally out of character but the main one was memory loss.”

The 58-year-old is now calling on anyone who thinks they may have experienced similar symptoms to go to their doctor.

She said: “If you don’t feel right and you think you have any of the signs just go to your GP.”