Friends of a mother-of-two from Seaton who died following her second battle with cancer are holding a fundraising evening in her memory. Sarah Hinks died in April on the morning of her 40th birthday, leaving those close to her in shock.

Unbeknown to many of her friends, Sarah was planning to hold a fundraising event this summer in aid of Macmillan Cancer Support. She and her friend Wendy Tonks a fellow cancer sufferer had organised a similar event last year, raising more than £3,500 for the charity.

Wendy said: Both of us had benefited from the charity when we were diagnosed with different cancers within a year of each other and underwent surgery along with radiotherapy and chemotherapy. After recovering from our treatments our thoughts turned to how fortunate we both were and we felt we wanted to give something back and so one restless night an idea formed in Sarahs head of a beach party. Last years event was a brilliant success and was the talk of our community for months afterwards with calls for us to repeat the event. I felt we should leave it for a complete year with a view to maybe doing it again in 2011. Sarah though I have since found out was fully intending to do it again this year and was confident of persuading me that we could.

Sarahs mouth cancer returned last year and it had spread to her heart and lungs but, keeping the worst of the bad prognosis to herself, she prepared to battle the disease once again.

Her death on her 40th birthday came as a huge shock to the tight-knit community in Seaton where she lived with her partner Colin Meddelton and her children Victoria, 16, and 11-year-old Daniel.

Sarah had been planning a big birthday bash with a fancy dress theme to which we were all looking forward, said Wendy.

Then news started to circulate that something was wrong. Sarah had died that morning there was complete disbelief that someone so special had been taken away from us on what should have been a celebratory day.

As a tribute to her friends life, Wendy has since decided to hold another charity night, which will be called Celebrating Sarah. The event will be held at Seaton Beach Cafe on August 22 and, once again, all proceeds will be donated to Macmillan Cancer Support.