When Sue Edwards succumbed to a brain tumour she left a lasting legacy.

Before the 57-year-old’s death in March last year, Sue told her husband Mark and daughter Gemma that she wanted them to use her brushstrokes to raise money for a brain tumour charity.

Exactly a year after her death, her family organised an exhibition of Sue’s artwork. It was the first time Mark, a retired dentist, and his daughter had organised such an event and they were staggered, yet delighted, when it raised an astonishing £14,000 for Brain Tumour Research and Support Across Yorkshire - a charity Sue held close to her heart.

“It was Yorkshire and it was brain tumours and it was the one Sue adopted as her charity,” explains Mark.

It wasn’t until Mark saw Sue’s portfolio that he realised the extent of her pastime. “She knew what we were going to do with the paintings, although she didn’t let on how many there were! It was her wish to use anything of hers to raise money for the charity. We were left completely open as to how we used it to raise the money,” explains Mark.

Sue had always harboured a creative flair. She was a skilful sewer creating her daughter’s wedding dress; she also dabbled with pottery and loved gardening - a passion she was able to put to good use transforming the three quarters of an acre of land at their Shipley home into an outdoor sanctuary with beautiful blooms.

“It was ripe for turning into a garden; she was a passionate plants woman, had always had an interest in art and was very creative,” says Mark.

“She could turn her hand to anything.”

Attending a botanical illustration course at Harlow Carr Gardens in Harrogate in 1994 enabled Sue to combine her love of gardening and art. “It brought together her two passions, art and gardening,” says Mark.

He recalls Sue would paint intermittently, often painting for eight hours a day over three days. “Then she would realise she hadn’t been out in the garden and she wouldn’t paint for two or three weeks, then she would paint again,” explains Mark.

Sue’s intricately detailed watercolours brought her, and many others who benefited from them, the greatest pleasure. Mark recalls she would hand out her artwork on cards to people who were often none the wiser that she was, in fact, the illustrator and creator.

She exhibited her work once with friends in Cumbria but, according to Mark, always considered herself to be an amateur artist when clearly her talent told a different story.

Sadly the diagnosis of an aggressive brain tumour in April 2011 put pay to Sue’s painting. Mark recalls Sue’s symptoms weren’t specific other than a few aches and pains and bouts of double vision.

“Nothing much hung together properly,” says Mark.

It wasn’t until Sue collapsed in her beloved garden - the sanctuary she so lovingly nurtured and which provided the backdrop to many of her watercolour paintings, that investigations revealed a brain tumour.

Yet, despite the seriousness of what she and her family faced, Sue never lost her zest for life nor her love of painting. “She was full of energy, if she walked into a room everybody had more energy by the time she walked out of the door, it was the way she was,” says Mark.

“She never moaned and groaned about her illness or the fact it was a terminal disease and she laughed all the way through with the stupidities because of the tumour. She was not going to be downhearted about it,” says Mark.

Following Sue’s death Mark discovered around 100 paintings, some of the originals were sold in the exhibition, but many others he has kept. He has also produced prints to give many more people the enjoyment of Sue’s legacy.

Being the venue where Sue developed her interest in botanical illustration, Harlow Carr was the perfect place for the exhibition which ran from March 1 to 12.

The fact it was so successful Mark says is a tribute to Sue’s talent and has also surpassed the target they set to support the charity. “We set ourselves a target to raise £20,000 over three years - at the end of the year we will have raised £20,000,” says Mark, who is also hoping to run an exhibition closer to home in Saltaire.

As well as supporting Sue’s charity, it is also helping to keep her memory alive. “One of the really nice things about the exhibition is I could stand there and talk about Sue all the time. I had the opportunity to talk to everybody about her,” concludes Mark.

Rachel Wilson, charity manager for BTRS, says: “The lovely thing about the whole exhibition was the effort that had gone into it, the attention to detail Mark had put in, it was fantastic and I think that would have added to why it became such a successful exhibition.”

She says the money would be directed towards research and support - key elements of the charity’s work.

Fine art prints are available as well as cards and Christmas cards. All proceeds from the sale are for BTRS. To find out more, visit sueedwardsbotanical.com