Marcus Cronin, 36, who teaches media at Lipson Co-operative Academy, is spending his half-term break taking on the 192-kilometre challenge in Portugal.
He will be remembering his wife Caroline Johnson, a marine biologist, who passed away at the age of 32 just six months after giving birth to their daughter Florence.
The couple shared a love of the ocean and the outdoors and had travelled extensively both together and individually with Caroline’s work taking her toplaces such as Madagascar, Fiji and Bermuda.
Marcus’s challenge will take him along the Rota Vicentina coastal path between Sagres, where the couple spent their first holiday together, and Sines, where they spent their last.
He arrived in Portugal at the start of this week and is expected to have completed the challenge by the end of it.
Caroline was working at the National Marine Aquarium and studying for her Masters at Plymouth University when she was diagnosed with a grade 4 glioblastoma multiforme (GBM), the most common and aggressive form of brain tumour.
She set her heart on getting married and having a baby and achieved both just months before her death in October 2013.
The Coast4Caroline run will raise money for the national charity Brain Tumour Research which funds four dedicated research centres including one at Plymouth University.
“Caroline was infuriated about how little money was spent on research into brain tumours. It is shocking to think that this devastating disease kills more children and adults under the age of 40 than any other cancer yet just 1 percent of the [UK] national spending on cancer research is allocated to brain tumour research,” said Marcus, adding: “Caroline wasn’t frightened of dying but she was frightened of being forgotten.
“I hope that she would be pleased that I am remembering her in this way and that the work taking place here in Plymouth and elsewhere will prevent others having to endure the suffering that she did.”
Brain Tumour Research is striving to fund a network of seven dedicated research centres whilst challenging the government and larger cancer charities to invest more in brain tumour research.
According to latest figures from the UK, 16,000 people each year are diagnosed with a brain tumour and less than 20 percent of those survive beyond five years compared with an average of 50 percent across all cancers.
The run is also raising money for the Marine Conservation Society, which Caroline was also passionate about.
Donations can be made via Marcus’s Virgin Money Giving page http://uk.virginmoneygiving. com/fundraiser-web/fundraiser/ display SomeoneSpecial Page.action?pageUrl= coast4caroline.
For more information on Brain Tumour Research, see: www.braintumour research.org