A Beeton woman who lost her husband to an alleged drunk driver is issuing an emotional plea to help save lives over the holidays.

Justine Ellis was at work on Nov. 14 when she got a frantic phone call from her mother-in-law. The police were at her front door.

“He didn’t deserve this. He worked so hard for Grayson and I to have this beautiful life, and we had so many plans,” she says.

Stuart Ellis was killed earlier that morning after a car drifted into the southbound lanes of Highway 48 in East Gwillimbury and collided head-on with his vehicle.

The driver of the car, 20-year-old Tyler Neilsen, has been charged with impaired driving causing death, taking a vehicle without consent and driving while disqualified.

Ellis, with tears running down her cheeks, begged for people not to drink and drive.

“It shatters whole families and changes things, everything,” she says. “I don’t want anybody else to ever go through this. If I can even save one life that means my husband’s life meant something.”

Neilsen’s case remains before the courts.

With files from CTV Toronto.