IT was a bitter-sweet moment last week when Potterne mum Judy Noyes sent cheques totalling £820 to the Motor Neurone Disease Association, in memory of her husband Chris who died of the disease in February.

Most of the money was raised from a barn dance that took place in March, just a few weeks after Mr Noyes died days after his 54th birthday.

Mrs Noyes said: "It was organised by my sister Christine Adams and her husband Steve, Steve's sister Diane Jordan and her husband Mick. When Chris died they asked if they should go ahead with the event and we thought it would have been what Chris wanted.

"I want to thank everyone who helped organise the event or turned up to support it."

The event, at West Lavington Village Hall on March 22, was an enormous success, but just how big a success came as a surprise to Mrs Noyes.

She said: "Christine handed me an envelope with £500 in it. Some people had made cheques out to Motor Neurone Disease Association and, with them, it brought it to a grand total of £820."

Some of the money raised by the dance went to Devizes Angling Association, for which Mr Noyes was a hard-working committee member for many years.

Mrs Noyes said: "Angling was his life. When his condition forced him to give up fishing, three weeks before he died, it hit him very hard."

Mr Noyes was a carpenter/joiner by trade, though he turned his hand to most things in the building trade. He began to suffer problems in 1996. When he complained of fatigue and muscle weakness, it was thought to be connected with the collapsed vertebrae in his spine, caused by his years in the building trade.

But his condition continued to worsen and his speech began to deteriorate.

Finally, he saw a consultant neurologist at the Royal United Hospital, Bath, who sent him for a muscle biopsy at Frenchay Hospital, Bristol.

The tests were conclusive and on April 26 last year, Mr Noyes learned he had Motor Neurone Disease and that it was terminal.

Of the three forms of the disease, Mr Noyes was diagnosed as suffering from Balfour's Palsy, which affected his speaking and swallowing.

By last Christmas he was unable to speak and could eat no solid food. His weight fell from 15 stone to ten and a half stone but he remained alert and as active as possible.

He found it too uncomfortable to sleep in a bed, so would find what rest he could sleeping in an armchair.

Mrs Noyes said: "It is such a cruel, horrible disease. His brain was unaffected but he couldn't communicate. He found that tremendously frustrating."

At the beginning of February, Mr Noyes was taken into the Royal United Hospital with breathing problems. Mrs Noyes was told her husband had only a few days left to live.

She said: "Although we knew that Chris's disease would eventually kill him, it was a tremendous blow. We had been married 32 years and our marriage had survived a lot of hardship.

"We lost our home of 19 years in 1993 during the recession and had to live in a flat for a while.

"When we settled into this place we were the happiest we had been in years and then this had to happen."

Mrs Noyes, her son Paul, his wife Emma and other members of the family kept a vigil with Mr Noyes during his last hours. The couple's daughter, Alison, who now lives away from the area, arrived in time to say farewell to her father, with whom she shared a love of football.

On February 11, Mrs Noyes left her husband at the hospital between 4pm and 5pm. At about 4.30am the following morning, which also happened to be her birthday, she had a phone call to say he had died.

More than 130 mourners attended the funeral service at West Wiltshire Crematorium.

Mrs Noyes said: "I couldn't believe how many people were there. All his friends from the angling association, of course, but others, including people he had done work for, had come to pay their respects."

Mr Noyes will be remembered by all those who knew him, but there is a more lasting memory of him at Crookwood Lake, near Potterne, the fishing lake built by the angling association for its members.

Mrs Noyes said: "Chris finally gave up fishing on the canal because there were too many boats disturbing the fish.

"There is a brass plaque up at the lake which says, 'in loving memory of Chris Noyes' and underneath it has the motto, 'no bloody boats.'"