Car prize for couple who beat cancer

8:34pm Sunday 3rd August 2008

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A DEVOTED wife who nursed her husband through three cancers and two heart attacks had a reason to celebrate when a routine trip to the hospital led to her winning a car.

Christine Lewis, 67, has been looking after husband Alan, 71, since he survived his heart attacks 10 years ago.

Over the years, Naphill resident Christine has watched her husband battle cancer of the colon, liver and lung, and in the last 18 months Alan has had to endure three painful heart operations.

Now, however, he seems to be on the mend, and his health is much improved.

Christine said: "Alan must have a guardian angel.

"He's got a lot more energy now. He's not on oxygen anymore, and he's not in a wheelchair."

When the pair took a train to London for one of Alan's checkups they noticed that their ticket gave them a two-for-one entrance deal at the Ideal Homes Show at Earls Court.

They decided to go on March 18, and picked up a leaflet to enter a competition in which Pyrex glassware was offering a brand new Mini as a prize.

One of the conditions of the competition was that entrants buy a Pyrex product, so Christine bought a roasting dish at John Lewis in Holmers Farm Lane, High Wycombe.

In June, she was told that she had won a brand new black Mini One.

"I was thrilled," she said, "it was quite a pick me up really.

"It's been a pretty hard time recently, but fingers crossed, we hope this is the finish of it all. That's why it was really lovely to win the Mini.

"It's funny, if we hadn't had these problems we wouldn't have gone up to the hospital, we probably wouldn't have gone to the exhibition and won the car."

The couple received their car on Thursday at a champagne reception at John Lewis.

The car now sits in the driveway of their home in Battings Wood Gardens, Naphill.

Alan said: "It looks lovely out there on the drive.

"We haven't quite decided who's going to drive it yet."