A GRIEVING husband is fundraising for a new cricket pavilion in memory of his beloved wife, who lost her 12-year battle with cancer last month.

Phil Duffell, 49, launched the Ainslie’s Pavilion project – which aims to build a new pavilion with full disabled access at Purton Cricket Club by 2020 – the 200th anniversary of the creation of Wiltshire’s first cricket club.

The pavilion campaign is dedicated to Phil's’s wife of 18 years and best friend Ainslie, who died aged 47 on February 13 after suffering from breast cancer.

Former Advertiser sports reporter Phil, from Middleleaze, said: “She was incredibly strong, just really inspirational as a person.

"She had a great sense of humour and continually confounded the doctors, her friends, me. She had this incredible strength of character, this resilience. She kept battling.”

Phil said the pavilion will be a place where 14-year-old son, keen cricketer Alex, can remember his mother.

“This is a place where Alex can feel a connection with his mum. They had a special relationship and he’s coped so well,” he said.

The former accountant battled cancer for more than a decade, continually defying doctors’ expectations that she would pass away within five years.

After being diagnosed with breast cancer in 2003, when Alex was just two and a half years old, Ainslie endured a mastectomy and three operations after the cancer spread to her liver.

“At first she gave herself goals. She wanted to take Alex to school on his first day, which she did,” Phil said.

“Then she wanted to see him finish school. In the end she almost got him to his GCSEs. She just kept moving forward.”

Tragically, in January 2012, just days after returning from a dream holiday in Sri Lanka, Ainslie was given the news that the cancer had returned in her brain.

Following treatment which left her confined to a wheelchair, she died in February.

The couple, who were together for 30 years, met during freshers' week at Keele University and enjoyed watching cricket with Phil and Alex playing at Purton Cricket Club.

Talented Alex currently represents the county under-14s, with dad Phil as assistant team coach and manager at the club.

In a devastating turn of events, The loving mother missed her son’s first century due to the lack of disabled access at the club – which formed part of the reasoning behind the Ainslie’s Pavilion campaign.

After reading Ainslie’s journal chronicling her battle against the disease Phil realised just how much disappointment she felt about missing the moment.

“I didn’t realise at the time how much it affected her but that was something she didn’t get to see and it was an amazing moment but it became so difficult to get her in and out,” he said.

“That’s why it is so important to have full disabled access here.”

Several Fundraising events have been planned include an alternative cricket match featuring Swindon Town FC alumni and a cycle ride from Ainslie’s birthplace of Moffat, Dumfries, to her home in Swindon.

For more information about Ainslie’s Pavilion visit www.twitter.com/ainsliepavilion