SOUTH WALES ECHO 21/07/08

21st July 2008

Singing for Justin
Jul 21 2008 by Karen Price, South Wales Echo

Singer Shan Cothi is launching a charity in memory of her husband Justin Smith, the bassist in Cardiff band Tigertailz, who died of pancreatic cancer. She tells KAREN PRICE about how she plans to raise money for it

ON the sideboard in Shan Cothi's dining room is a beautiful black and white photograph of her and her husband Justin Smith smiling broadly for the cameras.

But their smiles hid the devastating fact that after months of tests, Justin had just been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.

Despite a brave fight, the programme editor and bassist with Welsh glam metal band Tigertailz passed away in September 2007, just months after the photograph was taken and just weeks after marrying his long-term partner Shan at his hospital bedside.

Now Shan, an opera singer and actress, has founded a charity in her husband's name in a bid to raise awareness of pancreatic cancer - diagnosis is difficult and only 5% of sufferers survive five years.

She also hopes the charity - Amser Justin Time - will provide support to patients and their families.

Shan will officially launch the charity on August Bank Holiday Monday, a day after her performance at Bryn Terfel's Faenol Festival, when she and a small group of friends will set off on a charity horse ride from North to South Wales.

"Justin would think I was absolutely mad," smiles Shan, when I meet her at her home in Pontcanna, Cardiff.

"But he would be very moved. He was a very emotional, sensitive guy. He would say, ‘Anything that makes you happy Shan'."

A website has been set up by the charity and Shan has recorded a single, I Believe, with her close friend, international bass baritone Terfel - which they hope to sing at the Faenol Festival.

I Believe, which will be available for download from the charity's website, was written by Justin and recorded by Tigertailz. Justin plays bass guitar on the track.

Shan, who plays the leading role in S4C's Con Passionate, met Justin 10 years ago in the offices of TV production company Avanti when she was recording the Shan Cothi Show for S4C and he was editing.

They soon became a couple and settled down to life together in Cardiff.

In 2006, Justin began experiencing abdominal pains and later began losing weight but it took months of tests before a diagnosis was made.

"The doctor said, ‘I have got something really serious to tell you' and our hearts just stopped," says Shan.

Although he was very weak, in July 2007 the couple travelled to New York in a last ditch attempt to find alternative treatment. Justin proposed to Shan during their trip.

Not long after they returned to Wales, Justin was admitted to Holme Tower hospice in Penarth, where the pair were married in front of close family and friends.

"Justin was very ill that day but he got better for a few days afterwards. He was very proud, telling everyone he had made an honest woman of me," she smiles.

Following Justin's death at the age of 42, Shan, a blacksmith's daughter, immersed herself in horse-riding and bought a horse, Caio, who is kept in stables in Ogmore.

"He has been a godsend really," she says of the horse. "It's very therapeutic to go riding."

Now Shan and Caio, and a number of other riders, will make the trek of almost 300 miles from North to South Wales.

There will be fundraising concerts en-route, including one at The Point in Cardiff on September 18, but Shan says that since losing Justin, performing is no longer so important to her.

"I miss him like crazy. When something like this happens it changes your perspective on things," she says.

"But Justin would hate it if I didn't sing any more."

For more details on the charity, visit the website

www.amserjustintime.org