A midwife has set her sights on raising as much money as possible for a cancer charity following the death of a close friend.

Maureen Shepherd, pictured, of Hawksworth, and a small group of friends have already raised £10,900 for Colon Cancer Care since the death of 44-year-old Elaine Carruthers, also of Hawksworth, from colon cancer in December last year.

Elaine, who was lead nurse in the neonatal intensive care unit at Leeds General Infirmary, had fought a six month battle against the disease.

Since that time, Maureen, a midwife at St James's Hospital, Leeds, has helped organise two concerts, car boot sales, garden fetes and bag packing in Morrisons at Guiseley and Booths in Ilkley, to raise thousands of pounds.

The success of the two concerts in Leeds and Congleton, Cheshire, has spurred Maureen and her friends on to produce a CD of their music.

Containing 12 original folk songs, the CD "Cold Rain - I Know You're There", has been written and produced by Manchester-based musician Graham Larkin, another close friend of Elaine. "I did my nurse training with Elaine 28 years ago and a small group of us have remained close friends," said Maureen.

"We have always loved playing music and when Elaine died it seemed the obvious thing for us to do to remember her by and raise money at the same time."

Along with the CD, Maureen and two friends are undertaking a 100 mile trek in Vietnam in November and are looking for sponsorship.

"We have funded the trip ourselves, so any money that is donated will be going straight to Colon Cancer Concern," said Maureen.

"The charity aims to raise national awareness of the disease and improve the services for patients with colon cancer. They also fund research into the early detection of secondary disease.

"Elaine was a very special person. She was very highly respected as a leader on the neonatal intensive care unit and was totally committed to her work.

"By raising money in her memory we hope we can make a real difference to others affected by colon cancer and help make some sense of her death."

To obtain a copy of the CD or to sponsor Maureen contact her on (01943) 871 778 or (0113) 206 5701.