Downham Market woman Heather Bellamy was 'one woman who united community'

“She was an incredible woman, and I am so honoured to have been her partner and her husband,” he added.

Since the start of the year, hundreds of people joined the effort to raise £250,000 to allow Heather, who had acute myeloid leukaemia, to travel to America where what was hoped would have been a life-saving treatment is available.

Tens of thousands of pounds were raised in the Hope for Heather campaign, with dozens of events fundraising for the cause, including a 200-mile walk, a skydive, haircuts, fun days and more.

“People have been asking about the legacy she’s leaving. All I can think about is one woman has just united a community,” Max added.

“It’s not just Downham, it’s all of West Norfolk and beyond.”

Heather’s legacy will also include highlighting the type of cancer that she had.

“I’ll be the first to admit I had heard of leukaemia but I didn’t know what it was,” Max said.

“I think she’s raised awareness of that which is important as well.”

Along with the community, hospital staff should also be thanked for their support, he said.

Three weeks ago, Heather was rushed into hospital and doctors said the prognosis did not look good.

“The doctors told us they didn’t think she would last a day but she did,” Max said.

“They then told us on the Wednesday that she probably only had two or three days at most, so we got married in the critical care ward. It was the first time anyone had got married there.

“We rallied round and sorted everything out, and we got as much family there as we could at such short notice.

“She was still fighting for another two weeks.”

Max said staff “made it brilliant” for the couple, who were married on Thursday, July 18.

“I can’t speak highly enough of them.”

Heather was even allowed home for a couple of hours to say her goodbyes, including to her cats and her dog.

It was only on Saturday morning that Max discovered Heather had asked for her morphine to be dropped, which he believes she did to be able to have conversations with her children without being too drowsy.

“I can’t believe how much pain she would have been in.

“For her though, it was all about her children.”

She died in hospital later that day with Max and her sister Samantha by her side.

Heather leaves behind four children – Lilly Young, 24, Alice Young, 23, Alfie Randall, 16, and Sam Randall, 15.

Max said the family are “trying to keep things as normal as possible” while trying to cope with the loss.

He said: “The last couple of months, Heather was in and out of hospital quite a bit more than before.

“During the day, it was not unusual for her not to be here, but it’s in the evenings, when we would all go up to see her, or we would send her a text message, that’s when it hits home to us.

“It might seem a bit strange, but when we’re all at work or at school, it’s in the evening we all miss her.”

Family members are hoping to donate the funds raised for her treatment to the two hospital units which looked after her.

They said they were looking to refund those who had donated to help them reach the £250,000 target for Heather's treatment in America, but, due to a technicality with the fundraising site, they said this would not be possible.

Lilly Young, Heather’s daughter, said instead, they are hoping to give the money raised to the Macmillan Cancer Care Unit at Lynn’s Queen Elizabeth Hospital, and the unit at Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge, which also treated Heather.

The GoFundMe site, named 'Auntie Heather's Last Chance', is no longer accepting donations.

In a post on the site, Lilly said: "Again thank you to everyone who took the time to donate, share, hold fundraising events etc, it means so much that people did this for us."