A widow who lost her husband in a tragic motorway crash has set herself a mission to complete 51 challenges in his memory.

School teacher Julie Labbett, from Penrith, is hoping to raise about £5,000 for charity from her year-long fundraising quest, which she has dubbed “Challenge 51”.

She’s decided to take on that number of challenges because her husband Adam Gibb, a Highways England traffic officer, was 51 when he died on the M6 in February in a crash that involved a van and two cars.

The Great North Air Ambulance Service was deployed but Mr Gibb, who was responding to a separate incident on the road, was pronounced dead at the scene of the collision.

The crash also left one of his colleagues seriously injured.

The air ambulance transported him to the James Cook Hospital in Middlesbrough.

Now Julie is hoping to give something back to the charity which rushed to the scene of the crash her husband was involved in.

As part of her list of challenges set out so far she’s planning on completing the Tour de Staveley bike ride in Cumbria, a climb of Helvellyn, the Great North Swim and next year’s Keswick Triathlon.

“I’m doing a mix of things. I’m not the fittest person going so I’ve put some things on there that will physically challenge me and my friends have been coming up with all sorts of ideas,” Julie, 46, told The Cumberland News .

“These are some things that Adam liked doing, things like the outdoor running. I wouldn’t have done them normally.

“I’ve already started doing the give up sugar one which has been very hard.

“Tomorrow morning I’m doing the Tour de Staveley and there’s a lot of things coming up after that.”

Friends and family will be joining her along the way.

Her class at Langwathby School will also be helping her complete one of the challenges.

She’s planning on running a total of 51 miles with the youngsters she teaches so they can all get in on the act.

Their son Matthew, 15, is also going to help his mum do some of the tasks, as well as former colleagues of Adam.

“It was such an awful thing to happen I needed something positive to do for myself,” Julie added.

“The air ambulance does such a good job.

“If Adam had been alive he might have had a chance of surviving with them around. Plus they saved the life of his colleague.”

People can keep up-to-date with Julie’s progress on Facebook www.facebook.com/challenge51 and can sponsor her by going to the justgiving page at www.justgiving.com/fundraising/Julie-Labbett1.