Going out on a high

WIDOW SHARES STORY OF SENDING LATE HUBBY'S ASHES INTO SPACE

- MEG JORSH

BY the time he died, Shawn Marshall was a shadow of his former self. Once a lively, sociable man, his vibrant personality was stripped away by years of suffering with pancreatic illness.

But his wife Annette, 53, inset, was determined to organise a sendoff fit for the man she fell in love with. The former train driver was into dancing and travelling - and he wanted his ashes to be sent into space.

"He was a big space person," she says. "He was always talking about the solar system. He said he wanted us to look up at the stars and remember him."

At first Annette, a driving instructor from Kent, wasn't sure if his plans were even possible. But when she turned to Google, she discovered Aura Flights, a firm dedicated to scattering ashes across the stars.