Family and friends of Buxton man raise over £9,000 in his memory

Steve Gregory died in January after being diagnosed with stage four cancer last year.

Staff at Blythe House Hospicecare in Chapel-en-le-Frith cared for him in his final weeks, and in the spring his family walked from his home town of Buxton along the canal paths to Old Trafford as Steve was a huge Manchester United fan.

The walk raised £9,218.60 which they have now donated to the Eccles Fold charity. Stepson Dan Gilbride said: “This is an amazing donation to be giving to Blythe House and thank you to everyone who supported us.

“It now means Steve’s name will live on that bit longer and we will know other families are getting the wonderful help and support we did.”

Steve’s cancer was spotted after he had a hip complaint which turned out to be a fracture.

As he had not had a fall medical staff looked into the reason for the fracture and found cancer in his bones which had spread from his kidneys.

Steve was husband to Alison, dad to Kelly and Scott, stepdad to Dan and Kelly, and a granddad-to-six.

More than 40 people took part in the walk.

Dan, speaking on behalf of the whole family, said: “That just shows how loved he was. Thank you to everyone who took part. To the people who met us in New Mills with bacon butties, to the people who followed us in cars and gave us water and sweets and those who did some if not all of the walk with us – you are all amazing.”

The walk was supported by Morrisons supermarket, Buxton Water and Swizzels.

A spokesperson for Blythe House Hospicecare added: “It now costs £1.3 million every year to keep services running; that’s £3,600 per day.

“We receive just 20 per cent of our income from local NHS Clinical Commissioning Groups, and must raise 80 per cent through our fundraising and retail activities.

“Thanks to the remarkable generosity of our community, the care and support Blythe House and Helen’s Trust provides remains completely free of charge.”