Lynn Stewart, beloved wife of England cricket legend Alec Stewart, has sadly lost her fight against breast cancer.
The 62-year-old's husband, a renowned former wicket-keeper, took leave from his position as Surrey's director of cricket back in October to care for her during her illness.
Surrey Cricket announced the heartbreaking news on Monday, before the final day of their County Championship clash with Hampshire at The Oval.
Out of respect, players will don black armbands.
The club said in a statement: "Surrey County Cricket Club are greatly saddened to share the news of the passing of Lynn Stewart, wife of Alec Stewart."
"The flags above the Micky Stewart Members' Pavilion will be flown at half-mast for the remainder of the County Championship fixture against Hampshire as a mark of respect."
Club chair Oli Slipper said: "The sincere condolences of everyone at Surrey County Cricket Club are with Alec and the whole Stewart family. Our very best wishes are with the family and we will continue to offer any support to them that we are able to. In the meantime, we ask that people respect their privacy at this difficult time."
Lynn had been fighting cancer for over 11 years and the difficulties of her treatment prompted her husband to take a step back from Surrey last year. Stewart decided to step down as director of cricket and take a less demanding job as the county's high-performance cricket adviser, which he started in January.
Stewart, who also lost his friend and former team-mate Graham Thorpe last year, recently explained the ongoing fight his wife had been through with secondary breast cancer. She was undertaking chemotherapy late last year.
"There are bits and pieces that have crept up recently. It's never going away. It's managing it," Stewart told the Telegraph in October. "That is, there are some goodish times, and then the last four weeks have been tough for her. And then it's just putting faith in the oncologist we've had from day one, who's been brilliant."
"But yes, now I've got housework duties, cooking duties and other duties on the agenda, which I do to the best of my ability, which isn't great, but you've got to try, haven't you?"
"It is two weeks on and two weeks off with chemo and the oncologist has said we will attack it with vigour. And hopefully make life more pleasant. So it's just managing it really, dealing with it, which is what we've always done. She's the brave one."
Stewart is the fifth most-capped player for England in Test cricket and captained the team in both Tests and One-Day Internationals. He played for the team between 1990 and 2003, racking up 133 Tests and 170 ODIs, and spent his entire county career with Surrey, where he is revered as one of the club's best ever players.
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