The widow of a man who won millions in funding for local communities will scatter his ashes on a Galloway mountain on Saturday.
Chris Ward will hike up Cairnsmore of Fleet with friends, family and work colleagues to commemorate her husband Andrew.
Mr Ward, who was 66, passed away on September 29, just six weeks after he and Chris were married.
As Creetown Initiative manager, he was instrumental in securing significant sums of cash for community regeneration projects from multiple sources.
Now Chris, 58, is preparing to don her walking boots to say a final farewell to her husband on the popular peak.
She told the News: “We’ll be scattering some of Andrew’s ashes half way up and the rest at the summit.
“Some people won’t make it to the top and we wanted to include them.
“The urn is actually quite heavy to carry so Panny Watson, our manager at the Barholm Centre, is going up on a quad bike with the ashes on the back.
“Andrew would have had a little chuckle about that.”
Among the party making the ascent will be many of Andrew’s relations – and his and Chris’s pet collie Sally.
And Chris is hoping the weather gods will smile on what promises to be a special and uplifting day.
She said: “It will certainly be emotional but it will be a happy occasion as well.
“It’s about celebrating Andrew and thinking about all the memories.
“His cousins, nephews and nieces will be getting together – some of them have not seen each other for quite a few years.
“We are hoping some of the staff from the Creetown Initiative will be going up and I think representatives from Kirkcudbright Development Trust and Kirkcudbright Summer Festivities will be coming too.
“I’m looking at the long term forecast and it’s probably going to be dry.
“Scattering the ashes up at the top behind Creetown will be really nice.
“He will be up there overlooking Creetown which was a place he absolutely loved.”
Chris and Andrew got engaged last July but within a fortnight her husband-to-be was diagnosed with end-stage pancreatic cancer.
Mr Ward’s projects included transforming the former Johnston Primary School in Kirkcudbright into a planetarium and visitor centre, The Quarrymen’s Centre and the Barholm Centre in Creetown, Castle Douglas Community Centre and the New Galloway town hall upgrade,
