The morning Keith died had started out as an ordinary day. Lesley was busy ironing a shirt for him to wear, having just waved her grandchildren off to school. The house had been full of the laughter and chaos that came along whenever the little ones stayed, and now Lesley rushed about doing last-minute packing for a ski holiday they were due to go on that afternoon.
"It was the first time Keith had booked our holiday, and we were really excited," remembers Lesley.
"He’d booked the Eurostar, and the evening before we’d been to pick up the tickets. We were all ready to go."
But that morning Keith wasn’t feeling well at all.
"He said he felt hot and dizzy, and asked me how he looked," she says. "I was a bit concerned because he looked very pale, so I told him to go and sit down while I sorted out the last few bits. A few minutes later I heard him call my name from the next room, and I ran in to see what was wrong."
Lesley found Keith slumped on the sofa, completely unconscious. Frantically, she grabbed the phone and called 999. With an ambulance on the way, the operator talked Lesley through giving her husband CPR.
For 20 minutes, Lesley worked tirelessly on Keith, desperately delivering chest compressions and breathing into his mouth. When the paramedics arrived and took over, Lesley rang her grown-up daughters Rebecca and Gemma, who rushed to the scene. But sadly, despite the medics’ best efforts, it was too late. Keith died of a cardiac arrest, and his last act had been to call out Lesley’s name.
"I just collapsed on the floor and was inconsolable," says Lesley.
"My whole world changed in a second. Keith had always been fit and healthy – although he suffered from high blood pressure, it was controlled by tablets. We’d been together since I was 16 and married for 32 years, and life without him by my side was unimaginable."
The following weeks were unbearable, and Lesley felt completely numb and lost without Keith. At his funeral, the church was so full that many people had to stand outside in the churchyard.
Keith had always been a sociable person: the kind of bloke that gets on with everyone, a bit of a joker, who was always messing around and making people laugh. He loved football, fishing, and his job at Mercedes Benz. But most of all he adored his family, showering affection on his daughters and Lesley.
"We were married when I was 19, and he was everything to me," she says. "Everyone has their ups and downs in marriage, but he wasn’t an argumentative person at all. He was just always giving, and never expected anything in return."
Moving forward
In the months after Keith’s death, Lesley found it hard to cope. She went back to work as a marketing manager not long after the funeral, but every day was a struggle.
"All I remember saying is, 'What do I do next?'" says Lesley. "One evening I was sitting on the bedroom floor, trying to sort all the paperwork out for his life insurance and just crying because I didn’t know where to start.
"It was funny, but at that moment, I felt a presence, like a tickle on my arm, as if he was saying 'Don’t worry, everything’s going to be okay.' That’s when I realised I needed to focus and do something practical. I felt like half my life had been cut away from me, and I couldn’t bear that we hadn’t achieved all we wanted to together."
Keith and Lesley had shared a love of adventures, and had often dreamed of the places they’d like to go together. But something had always got in the way: money was often tight, and parenting was a full-time job. But Lesley suddenly realised how short life was, and was determined to experience the adventures she and Keith had dreamed of.
Just eight months after Keith’s death, Lesley signed up to walk the Great Wall Of China.
"It’s one of the trips that he wanted to do," she says. "I just wanted to focus on something, to have something to get up for, to keep me moving forward."
Lesley paid for the trip herself, but began fundraising for the British Heart Foundation, and the donations flooded in. Alongside training for the tough physical challenge, she managed to raise £6,000, taking comfort that the money would be helping to save lives.
"I’d never really done much without Keith because we’d been together my whole adult life," she remembers. "But there was a group of people walking the wall and raising money for the BHF, and we all met up at Heathrow aiport to begin the trip together.
"They were lovely people, many of whom had lost friends and family to heart conditions, so we all bonded right away. But no one else had lost a partner so recently, and because of that, they really looked after me. They knew how much the trip meant to me."
Lesley held it together until they reached the famous ‘stairway to heaven’ part of the wall.
"When we got up to the top, we tied a ribbon around a tree to remember the people we’d lost – it was very emotional and I just sobbed."
Flying back from China, Lesley felt full of a sense of achievement and her sadness lessened slightly for the first time since Keith’s death. She began to plan more adventures and new ways to raise money for BHF.
Globetrotter
Three years on from Keith’s death, Lesley has raised more than £12,000 for the charity. She’s hiked the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu in Peru, and completed the Yorkshire Three Peaks challenge, climbing more than 2,000 metres in 12 hours.
"My toes have never been the same since that one!" she laughs.
In two weeks time she’ll be walking from London to Brighton with the same group of firm friends she made walking the Great Wall of China.
"We try and do something to fundraise together every year, and it’s great to meet up," she says. "So far I’ve raised £2,500, but I’m hoping to raise even more. I’ve also been working on building my stamina up because it’s a long old way."
Although the fundraising and adventures are good fun, not a day goes by that Lesley doesn’t miss Keith. Lesley adopted a Springer Spaniel called Lola who never fails to cheer her up.
"She completed the Three Peaks challenge with me, and she kept me going at the end because I was just totally crippled by that point. I walked 25 miles, but she must have done about 70 miles because she was weaving all over the place."
But even with Lola by her side, sometimes the loneliness gets to Lesley.
"It still feels like yesterday that I lost Keith," she says. "I’ve tried dating but I just talk to guys and I think, 'Well, you’re not Keith.' It’s hard finding that someone who I’ll spark with, and I haven’t seen or felt that with anyone."
For now, Lesley wants to carry on doing the things she and Keith never had the chance to do together, and hopes he would be proud to see how independent she is now.
"He’d be surprised that I’m doing these things on my own. It’s not just the big adventurous things that I’m doing on my own, it’s also stuff like changing electric sockets or climbing up on the roof to do repairs. I’m resigned to the fact that I’ve got no one else there to do it, I’ve got to do it myself."
Lesley has also won the British Heart Foundation’s Inspirational Woman of the Year award.
"I’ve raised so much money, and I’ll keep doing it because I get a satisfaction out of it," she says. "It makes me feel stronger, and it keeps Keith’s name going as well."
Face your biggest fear this July and help fund life-saving heart research. To find out more, visit BHF.org.uk/fear