The memory of a dear friend – and a morale-boosting running partner – helped a Polperro woman make it around the London Marathon course. Zoe Maycox, 48, has been fundraising for several months for Brain Tumour Research in memory of Andrew Cullum, who died in 2014. She has raised more than £3,600 - equivalent to more than £137 per mile. But with IT (Iliotibial) band syndrome and a pulled hamstring in the run-up to London 2016, Zoe almost saw her marathon hopes dashed. ‘I was advised by doctors and my physiotherapist not to do the event,’ she said. ‘By mile nine my IT band started to really hurt but I wasn’t going to give up. I kept thinking about all of the people who donated and kept thinking about my friend Andrew who lost his life to a brain tumour – that’s when I decided that I wasn’t going to be beaten by pain. ‘My friend David Lean, from Dobwalls, decided to help me and joined me for the rest of the marathon and without him I really don’t think I would have made it.’ Zoe says that people around the route shouted ‘oggy, oggy, oggy’ when they saw her Cornish flag. ‘Seeing all those people who were cheering me on was just amazing,’ she said. ‘The London Marathon was one of the best experiences of my life.