A HEARTBROKEN couple from Weymouth have completed a 1,057-mile walk the length of Britain to raise awareness of a disease that claimed the life of their 22-year-old daughter.
Robert and Sheila Skinner, who met at Weymouth Grammar School in the 1970s, spent seven weeks travelling from Land's End to John o'Groats.
They undertook the walk in memory of their daughter Alli, who died of bowel cancer in March 2003.
During the journey the couple devised a novel way of raising awareness of cancer and keeping the memory of their travel-loving daughter alive - they left 56 of their favourite books in various places along their route.
Mrs Skinner, 50, said: "With the help of an American artist called Patrick Yesh her portrait appears on a book crossing label and thus she is still travelling.
"Alli was just 20 when she was diagnosed with bowel cancer and she lost her fight 18 months later.
"She was a bright, breezy, artistic young lady. Even in the midst of her pain her smile would light up the room. We had survived her rebellious teens, the underage tattoos and experimental hair colours.
"She had a wonderful partner and a bright future, cut short by a disease that should not have gone undiagnosed. I'll always remember when we discovered that Alli had bowel cancer.
"It was the Friday after 9/11 and so a week that I will never forget.
"She had major surgery the week before and they had removed a third of her large bowel."
Mrs Skinner now lives in Surrey with her husband but they still have family in Weymouth.
She said Alli spent six months on chemotherapy and the family were hopeful she had beaten the illness.
"But in October the pain returned. She went for surgery again but this time they were unable to remove the growth.
She spent most of the time from Christmas 2002 until early March in hospital. Alli died on March 28.
"The last proper meal she was able to eat was on Christmas Day," Mrs Skinner said.
"From then on she went through chemo, an operation to insert a line, an operation to insert a tube in her stomach, constant diamorphine pain-relief and overnight attachment to a drip to get the nutrition she needed.
"In short, she went through hell. She bore it all with great fortitude and spirit, which the many people who met her during that time will probably never forget."
Miss Skinner decided in March to stop the chemotherapy and spent the last few weeks of her life at home with her partner and her close family.
Mrs Skinner said: "She made peace with a God, whom she had probably thought about very little over her 22 years, and she waited for the moment when she closed her eyes and could see her Grandad coming to fetch her."
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