A RISCA husband, whose wife died of cervical cancer aged just 26, is urging other women to get checked for the disease.

We reported yesterday how Sarah Wilford, of Risca, died on Monday following months of radiotherapy and chemotherapy after being diagnosed with the disease last May (2009).

The mum-of one to Jac, 19 months died just five weeks after the couple got married.

Now, her husband Elliott, also 26, is urging women to have regular cervical smear tests to detect the disease in the hope that others don’t go through what she went through unnecessarily.

He said: “I know it’s a very personal subject for women but I would ask them to please, please have a smear test.

“That is what Sarah would have wanted, she always said she did not want anyone else to going through that.”

Nursery nurse, Mrs Wilford, started having pains in her legs in summer 2008 and a cervical smear test, around seven months later, revealed a lump on her cervix.

A month later, in May 2009, an MRI scan at Newport’s Royal Gwent Hospital confirmed it was a cancerous tumour, which later spread to her chest.

She spent the next 11 months in and out of Cardiff’s Velindre Hospital, where the couple married on March 12.

Her mum, Christine Wigg, 61, described her daughter as an inspiration to all because of her positive attitude through her battle with the disease. Mrs Wilford's funeral will take place at 2.15pm on April 28 at Moriah Baptist Church, Risca.

Women in Wales can get have a cervical smear every three years from the age of 20. For more information visit nhsdirect.wales.nhs.uk or phone 0845 4647.