An Uxbridge dad will take part in Cancer Research UK’s Shine Night Walk in celebration of both his wife and daughter’s recovery from cancer.

Wade France, 47, will be joined by his wife Emily, 46, to walk 26.2 miles overnight on Saturday September 26. They are calling on people across London to join them and sign up for Shine Night Walk.

Wade’s daughter Callie, now 10, was diagnosed with a type of kidney cancer called Wilm’s tumour a week before her third birthday in March 2008. She was treated with chemotherapy at Great Ormond Street Hospital before having surgery which included the removal of a kidney which had been destroyed by the tumour.

Mr France, an air traffic controller at RAF Northolt, said: “There are no words to describe how it feels when you are told your child has cancer. I really feel for any parent who has to go through that. Callie was absolutely amazing, she went through everything without batting an eyelid.”

Fortunately Callie, a pupil at Whitehall Junior School, responded well to treatment and now only has to attend a check-up every 12 months.

In April 2013, Wade’s partner Emily was diagnosed with breast cancer just weeks before they were due to marry.

Wade, who is also dad to Cade, eight, said: “She’d been tested for lumps before and the results always showed they were benign so we weren’t too worried. When she was told the news it hit us pretty hard. She’d been on the way to the registry office to drop off our wedding forms. It was the last thing we were expecting.

“Emily had a lumpectomy the following day and we went ahead with our wedding on schedule. It was just before she started chemotherapy so she still had long hair, a few weeks later she started to lose it.

“Throughout everything she was really brilliant. She was always so sure it was going to be okay. She was stronger than the rest of us around her.”

Emily had six months of chemotherapy at University College London Hospital which was followed by a mastectomy and a year’s course of herceptin.

It was while she was going through treatment that Wade first took part in Shine Night Walk. Last year the couple completed it together and are in training for it again this year.

“The atmosphere is fantastic from start to finish. There are so many people cheering you on and the volunteers are really good.

“Finishing it is always the most amazing feeling. The first time I did it the last mile was horrendous, I could barely put one foot in front of the other, it was absolutely worth it though to know I was helping to fund research to beat cancer sooner.”

Shine Night Walk will take place over night from Saturday 26 September to Sunday 27 September. “Shiners” will start from Southwark Park, taking in sights such as Tower Bridge, Big Ben, The Shard, St Paul’s Cathedral and the Royal Albert Hall, before finishing in the heart of the city at Old Billingsgate.

Participants can walk the full marathon (26.2 miles) or half marathon (13.1 miles) and they can personalise their sponsorship by choosing to fund research into one of 12 different cancer types including prostate, children’s and breast cancer.

Entry for the event closes on Sunday 13 September. To enter Shine Night Walk or sign up as a volunteer click here.