A FAMILY’S heartbreak will be turned to good this Christmas.

Christine Bean celebrated her last Christmas in October last year, two months early and just weeks before she died at the Prospect Hospice aged just 56 and surrounded by festive decorations. She was a keen singer, performing with the Kentwood Show Choir.

Now, Christine’s family and friends have recorded a Christmas single to raise cash for the charities that supported her.

The single is the brainchild of Clarry, her husband of 33 years. He said: “She was beautiful, friendly and loyal. She was very much the wise one in the family, always the counsellor and she read people very well."

“I feel it every day. I miss her every day. I walk into the bedroom or walk up the stairs and I miss her."

Christmas was one of her favourite times of the year, added 62-year-old Clarry, a former manager of the Devizes Road Arts Centre.

“She turned the house into a grotto,” he said. “It became a major operation to move furniture around and put ornaments away. She was very particular about the tree and how it was decorated. Christine loved giving. We have two small grandchildren now, aged three and five, they really enjoy Christmas.”

Christine was diagnosed with rare autoimmune disease Granulomatosis in 2009 and cancer five years later.

She died 12 days before last Christmas. The idea for a festive single came to Clarry in the months after his wife’s death.

The song, Christmas (the way it’s meant to be), has been written by Clarry with his musical partner Andy Merryweather. A scratch choir of friends and family, dubbed Christine’s Chorus, came together to record the track in Old Town. The song will be released on December 7, with proceeds going to the Prospect Hospice and charity Vasculitis UK.

Clarry said the song’s powerful lyrics about loss at Christmas time connected with those who had listened to the tune: “We’ve all lost somebody and it seems to resonate with people.

“I’m a firm believer that Christine is still around and she’s guided us through this whole process of making the song. It’s kept her presence.”

The single will be available to download online, can be pre-ordered from www.illuminatemylife.co.uk. CDs will be available from Sound Knowledge, Marlborough, and Holmes Music in Swindon.