TRIBUTES have been paid to generous Swindon musician and artist Emily Wang, who lost her eight-year fight with ovarian cancer.

Husband Alan, 47, described his wife as “unbelievably generous”: “If she had something that would help you, she would give it to you.

“We were sat at a restaurant in Bristol and a beggar was drawing portraits of people to try and raise money. She gave him a set of fine artists’ drawing pens, because that would have made it easier for him to earn money.”

Alan and Emily, who lived together in a Rodbourne terrace, met at New College when they were teenagers.

But other relationships got in the way and it wasn’t until 2009 that the pair finally got together. By that time, Emily had played in a score of popular Swindon bands, including local folk heroes Pagan Fringe.

Just two months after Alan and Emily began a relationship, doctors told Emily she had cancer. Alan said: “We found out about a month later it was terminal. It’s horrifying to wait that long to be with someone and nearly instantly you’re told there’s a time limit.”

Almost immediately, Emily was plunged into a year of operations and chemotherapy: “I spent a lot of time walking up and down hospital corridors. We spent our first Valentine’s Day with me emptying Emily’s catheter bag.”

But Alan said it was testament to Emily’s creative talent that she got through the treatment and continued to paint, draw, play music and write.

Friend Alexandra Moulding said: “Emily was so strong. Because she was so creative she had a lot of tools to be able to cope and express what was happening. Sometimes she’d have to draw all day long to get through the pain and depression of her illness.

“I think of Emily as larger than life. She was the most vibrant, sparkling person. She wanted everybody else to be the best they could be.

“She counselled all of her friends. That’s what she was good at: making you feel unique and special.”

Despite her cancer, Emily continued to paint, write poetry and novels and play in her own band. The couple’s bohemian festival-themed wedding, held in a Wroughton field, was described by friends as the best wedding they had ever been to. Alan said: “Emily was the creative source and it was the best day ever.”

Emily stayed at the Prospect Hospice in the weeks before she died, with nurses wheeling her bed out into the garden sunshine. Alan said of hospice staff: “They were absolutely amazing: respectful, pleasant, caring, kind, generous. They could not have done more.”

She died aged 46, surrounded by her family, on June 27. Alan said: “I’m autistic and she was artistic. She was amazing at everything I can’t do and, as an autistic person, there’s a lot I can’t do. She filled in every single empty space. Life is going to be colder without her.”

Her funeral will be held at Kingsdown Crematorium on Thursday, July 19, at 3pm, followed by a wake and concert at The Castle,