WHEN great-grandmother Mary Tampion said goodbye to her dying sister last April she made her a promise.

She told her she was going to take part in the Flora Light Challenge for Women and she said she would be doing it for the Macmillan nurses who had cared for her sister, Edna Delacour, during her illness.

Mary, her daughters Jennifer Hamer, 47, Claire Neale, 45, and Nicky Higgins, 40, and her granddaughters Kai Neale, 23, and Kelly Westwood, 22, will all be taking part in the Flora Light Challenge in London in September.

Even great-granddaughter Ellora Pellet, just one year old, will be there. She will be pushed round the 5km course in her buggy.

They will all be raising money for the Macmillan South Hampshire Appeal.

"We are doing it in my sister's memory," said Mary, 74, of Hawthorn Close, Hedge End.

"When I went to see her to say my goodbyes I had just received my package from the Flora Light challenge.

"I told her I had decided I was going to do the walk and that I was going to do it in her memory for Macmillan nurses. She said that was wonderful and that I couldn't do it for anyone better. Then she got her handbag out and gave me my first donation."

The Daily Echo-backed Macmillan Appeal aims to raise £1m to fund a cancer information and support centre at Southampton General Hospital.