On the 16th April 2025, my wife and mother of our 3 children, Fiona Spink passed away, aged just 53.

The dignity and bravery she demonstrated, following being surprisingly diagnosed with terminal cancer on 10th August 2023, was nothing short of mind-blowing. Everyone that knew and loved her was filled with admiration.

Being the publican/landlady/business owner of very popular bars in Witney, Oxfordshire, she was known by many and respected by all. The hundreds and hundreds of people that lined the streets and followed the hearse on the day of her funeral on 20th May 2025 was an overwhelming tribute to her that will never be forgotten by any that participated or witnessed it.

Fiona was born in Hull, Yorkshire on 19th April, 1971.

Our life together began by growing up just 31 doors apart on the same street. Then, starting the same school together aged 5.

I was finally brave enough to ask her on our first date on my 19th birthday.

We married and started our family in 1992 when Fiona was just 20 years old and I'd just turned 21.

In the late '90s, we moved our family south to sunny Witney, Oxfordshire for work reasons, and soon settled down.

In 2008, we started our first business together, Fat Lil's, a music venue and started our new life of working together, as well as raising our family.

We did this in the hope that our children would have a successful legacy to 'inherit' on our 'early retirement'.

The business kept expanding and our sons Zac & Tyler, and daughter Gina, all ended up working with us on our growing adventure.

Over all those years, we learnt that close family business life isn't always the utopian dream that was behind the inspiration and motivation. However, thanks mainly to Fiona's direction, wisdom and incredible work ethic, we made it great and continue to this day.

Life together was a mixture of challenge and triumph. Some lows, but mainly lots of amazing highs. And by 2022, after 30 years of marriage, we were deeply, madly in love again.

Learning about Fiona's illness in 2023 was truly heartbreaking. We had just reached the point when we could start to plan a slightly slower life together, but with this news, we decided to make the most of whatever time we had left anyway. We travelled the country in some of our fun cars, to spend as much time as we could by the coast in nearly all the seaside counties.

Not once did she feel sorry for herself. Or if she did, she didn't make it known. Even when she became extremely ill in December 2024.

Her bravery will never, ever leave me/us. What we all saw was something very special. Unimaginable.

To commemorate the 1st anniversary of Fiona's passing, on Thursday 16th of April 2026, I'm going to set off on a bicycle and ride the 200 miles back to our hometown of Hull, hoping to arrive on what would've been her birthday on the 19th.

Rather than being sad and feeling sorry for myself, I think this will be a good way to occupy my time and mind in a positive way.

I've never ridden a bike more than 20 miles, never mind 200. So, the idea of pushing myself physically and mentally to the max, makes me smile knowing that it's not a patch on anything Fiona could do, but will require some 'bravery' from me too.

I've been told that it costs around £5,200 to finance the costs of a MacMillan nurse for a month.

During the 20 months we knew about Fiona's cancer, we probably only needed about 5 hours of support from them in total, but what they did was fantastic and we were very grateful. So, to raise enough to pay for a month would mean they get to help so many people.

The thought of this and the memory of EVERYTHING about Fi will propel me north to our old home.

Thank You for reading. Wish me luck. Pop a few quid in if you can.

See you on the Highway To Hull.

Paul X