Son's funds run in Dad's memory

May 27 2007 By Coreena Ford, The Sunday Sun

A determined son has launched a bid to raise £90,000 for research into the lung disease which claimed his father's life.

Joe Wallace spent more than 40 years working in Sunderland's shipyards and felt fit and healthy when he retired at the age of 66.

Yet within a year of retirement, the father-of-four's health had rapidly deteriorated and he passed away four months after being diagnosed with mesothelioma, a form of chest cancer linked to breathing in deadly asbestos.

His youngest son Paul, 33, has now set up The Joe Wallace Breath of Life Fund as a tribute to his father . . . and the young dad intends to raise enough cash to pay for at least three years' research into the fatal disease, through many sporting events. Paul, a community support officer with Northumbria Police who is married to Paula, has already raised almost £2000 by completing the Liverpool half marathon and the Edinburgh 10k.

Next weekend, he and his football fanatical friends from Sunderland will take on Scottish friends in an England v Scotland five-a-side tournament.

The Sherburn Hill, County Durham dad, who has two sons, Joseph, two, and Jack, six months, as well as a step-daughter Jade, eight, and step-son Danny, 14, told of his family's shock when his dad was diagnosed.

He said: "It was like a brick getting thrown through a window because he had always been so fit . . . so good, in fact, that he decided to work an extra year after retiring.

"Everyone thinks of mesothelioma as being an industrial disease that's fading away along with the shipyard industry, but it takes years for it to show so thousands of people will learn they have it over the next few years and beyond.

"It was frightening to see dad go downhill so quickly, so if I can help someone else that is all the motivation I need.

"I'm not a serious runner at all but I've done quite a few runs over the years for other charities . . . and now I can do races for my own charity.

"I'm also doing the Leeds 10k and the Great North Run. Apparently, someone dies every five hours from mesothelioma in the UK and according to the statistics I've read more than 100,000 people alive today will die from mesothelioma.

"I've set myself the target of £90,000 because that will pay for three years of research."

Deaths from the disease are at their highest in the North, and more than double that of most other areas. It is the biggest killer of men aged 65 and over in the region.

V Anyone who wants to help Paul in his fundraising can visit www.joewallace.webeden.co.uk

ON THE RUN:Paul in the Liverpool half marathon

MEMORY:dad Joe