She finished race in wedding gown to honour her late husband

WITH about 4.8km remaining in the London Marathon, Laura Coleman-Day jogged off the road and onto a median but not because she was tired.

- KYLE MELNICK

Her friends were waiting, holding the ivory wedding dress Coleman-Day had worn on the same day six years earlier, the day her husband Xander told her she looked beautiful in it.

She pulled the dress over her sweaty running clothes and jumped back on the course to finish the marathon in honour of Xander, who died in February 2024 of a complication from stem-cell transplants.

The dress stretched about 30cm past Coleman-Day's blue running shoes, so she held up the front and a friend held the train until they crossed the finish line Sunday.

Then Coleman-Day, 34, broke down in tears. Not only did wearing the dress make her feel connected to Xander, she said, but she had also finished her 12th marathon in 12 months as part of a fundraiser for a British stem-cell transplant charity.

"The challenge has brought me through the worst year of my life," Coleman-Day said.

About a decade ago, Coleman-Day, living with her parents, met Xander, who served in the Royal Air Force, near a military base in Northumberland, England. The couple married April 27, 2019, in a Harry Potter-themed wedding in a stone barn in Chipping Norton, a town in Oxfordshire, England.

Coleman-Day said she could always find Xander in a crowd by listening for his loud and infectious laugh. He enjoyed birdwatching in his garden in Lincolnshire, and he was especially excited when he spotted his favourite birds, magpies and hoopoes.