A COUPLE struggling to make ends meet as one of them fights the ravages of terminal illness have thanked the townspeople of Chagford for helping them through lean times during Christmas.

Nurse Sharon Coath climbed into the pulpit of Chagford church during a Christmas Eve service to express her gratitude for all the help she and her stricken husband Mike have received since he was diagnosed with his condition last summer.

She said yesterday: 'Everyone has been so fantastic. We could not have coped without them.'

Mr Coath, 56, who was given just two months to live, has so far defied the odds to square up to an inoperable brain tumour illness which has laid him so low.