Family devastated by loss of 'absolute rock' who worked at St Rocco's

The Widnes youngster wanted to raise as much money for Macmillan Cancer Care as possible to show how much he loved him and help the charity that was supporting his family.

Tommy ran his last kilometre ahead of schedule on Sunday, March 28, and less than 24 hours later Peter sadly passed away, after a short battle with cancer.

The family have been left devastated by the loss of “an absolute rock” as Peter, who grew up in Penketh and Great Sankey, was “one of the good ones in life”.

He and his wife Mo celebrated their golden wedding anniversary in April last year and the couple had two children, Jane and Andrew, and four grandchildren, Dan, Joe, Tommy and Ellie.

So far, Tommy, who was joined by his year three and four classmates at St John Fisher Catholic Primary School for one of his runs, has raised more than £2,500 in his granddad’s honour after coming up with the idea to run every day in March himself and he kept smashing each new fundraising target.

Tommy’s challenge continued to hit the headlines throughout last month with Warrington Wolves players and comedian Keith Lemon showing their support by sending video messages and retweeting his donation page.

Peter, who was 72 when he died, was a keen fisherman and a passionate rugby league fan being an ardent support of Wigan.

He was a welder and talented carpenter by trade, even starting up his own handyman business with his son, Andy.

In his later years he worked for St Rocco’s Hospice until he retired and was always respected for his professionalism and attention to detail.

Peter’s funeral will take place this Friday at Walton Lea Crematorium with requests for flowers only from the family.

Anyone wishing to make a donation can visit Tommy’s page Tommy runs 100k in March for Macmillan Cancer, organized by Michelle Weekes