A Birmingham cancer nurse is urging people to leave work early this Friday and take part in one-mile charity walk.

Marina Harper became a Marie Curie Nurse after working with a few cancer patients in Birmingham as an agency nurse.

The 38-year-old, who lives in Sutton Coldfield, said she hoped the charity's Great Daffodil Walk Home on Friday would help to raise funds to employ more specialist nurses.

Mrs Harper said: "The carers, who are usually relatives, can become very exhausted both mentally and physically, so there is often a sense of relief when we arrive.

"Sometimes they just want someone to talk to, because they go through enormous emotional trauma. From that point of view the work that Marie Curie does - be it the nurses, the research or with the hospices - is absolutely vital."

Mrs Harper has seen an aunt and her grandparents die from different forms of the disease, but that's not why she became a Marie Curie Nurse in 1997.

"There's a great deal of job satisfaction as we can spend more time with patients than nurses ever could in a busy hospital," she said.

Everyone who takes part in Friday's walk will donate, at least, £5.