A COUPLE who lost both their young children to heart disease hope to give other youngsters a better chance - with a charity gun pull from Newport to Cardiff.

Cwmbran couple Mark and Dawn Adams lost their daughter Zoe, aged just five months, in March 2000, to pulmonary hypertension.

In October last year they celebrated the arrival of a son, Joshua, but he suffered from the same disease and died in April this year.

The pull will be launched by Assembly Health Mini-ster Jane Hutt in John Frost Square at 10.30am on Saturday, and the team will spend four hours pulling a piece of heavy field artillery along the A48 to Queen Street in Cardiff, where they will be greeted by the Royal Regiment of Wales Band.

Dawn, 32, of Pontnewydd, said: "We began the whole thing in May but it's really only taken off in the last two months, and it's been non-stop.

"My husband, Mark, is in the Territorial Army and everybody there, and all our friends and family, wanted to do something good for us.

"He suggested the gun pull and everything just escalated from there. It just got bigger and bigger and bigger as it went on.

"We wanted to do something for both our children and to find something good to come out of such terrible circumstances - and to try and keep ourselves going.

"It's such a difficult situation.

"Zoe died so quickly and unexpectedly that I don't think we'll ever get over the shock.

"But with Joshua, who was diagnosed with this after only 12 days, we knew he would never grow up and we'd never see him walking and talking, so when we lost him it hurt like hell.

"The money we raise will go on a weekend for children with pulmonary hypertension around the country.

"They can get together and have a fun weekend. Some of these children are on oxygen or in wheelchairs and most of them are dying. "It would mean something for them all to get together and to give them a bit of fun.

"We felt we had to do something because Josh fought so hard and we were so proud of him.

"We didn't want to let his memory fade."

The gun is due to arrive at Cardiff Castle, at 2.30pm, where First Minister Rhodri Morgan will greet the crew before presiding over an auction of Christmas gifts - with all the money raised going to the Pulmonary Hypertension Association.