IT WAS when she was in the throes of death caused by brain cancer that something remarkable happened to Graham Whalley's wife Helen.

And it is when he speaks of it that you begin to understand the inspiration behind all that Graham and his young children have achieved since her death.

To Graham, the physical strength that led to him achieving the world sit-up and press-up records is nothing compared to that of his wife when she forced herself into consciousness in order to wish her son a happy birthday.

Graham, a father-of-three, of South Moor, near Stanley said: "She always put the kids first and she had wanted to wish our son a happy birthday even though it was a few days before the day.

She had a lot of drugs and wasn't really with us but she somehow came back from nowhere. She emerged for about 20 minutes and was totally with it. We called the children in and that was it. She found something from somewhere so we could be a family one last time.

"She was an incredible wife and mother with the loveliest heart. That's why she did it, that's why she came back to us for a brief moment."

Graham, a former boxer, says he 'went off the rails a bit' after Helen died but it was when he remembered the strength of his wife that he decided to do something as a tribute to Helen, who was 32 when she died in February, 1999.

He has received attention from around the world after he beat the world press-up record on the anniversary of her death when he completed 3,420 press-ups in an hour.

Last year he also smashed the world sit-up record, which stood at 3,318. Graham beat that by more than 1,600 to pound out 5,005 sit-ups at Stanley Louisa Centre.

The courage of the couple's children Helenlee, 14, Graham 12 and Kurt, ten, has also been recognised. The trio were picked to light the Millennium Beacon at Newcastle's New Year's Eve celebrations as a tribute to their efforts in looking after their mum during her illness.

Graham will continue to fight for a lasting, real memorial to his wife.

His next plan is to set the world record for a kind of sit-up exercise called 'jack-knives' which he will do while suspended from a helicopter over the Millennium Bridge at Newcastle.

As always money raised will go to cancer research and Newcastle General Hospital where his wife was cared for.

He will continue to find inspiration from the memory of Helen and from the poems and children's stories that she wrote in the final months of her life.

One of those poems was called Cancer, which ends with the following lines:

"Keep your face of vanity,

Keep your riches of gold.

The laughter and joy of children,

Are the jewels that life beholds.