Colleagues raise cash as a tribute to Eddie
WALKERS AIMING TO COLLECT £20,000 FOR PROSTATE CANCER CHARITY
STAFF at B&Q are to pay tribute to a colleague who lost his life to prostate cancer by taking part in a 10km charity walk in his memory.
Eddie Richards died in September at the age of 56, surrounded by his wife and daughters, after battling the disease for five years.
The deputy manager worked for B&Q for 41 years. Forty of his colleagues have pledged to raise £20,000 in his name as they walk six miles from Beacon Hill Country Park to the B&Q branch in Loughborough.
Angela Peel, unit manager of the Wigston store, said she wanted to take part in the March for Men campaign with Prostate Cancer UK to do something special in honour of her long-standing friend.
Angela, who has worked for B&Q for 17 years, made friends with Eddie during her six-year stint at the Loughborough store, in Jubilee Drive.
She said: “When I planned this walk, I never thought he wouldn’t be there waiting for us at the finish line.
“Just when he thought he got past one hurdle, something else came along. It is absolutely criminal something like this happened to him.
“I still can’t believe it, I genuinely thought he was going to crack it.”
When one of their colleagues, Oz, died in February last year after contracting Covid-19, Angela said Eddie began to “question his own mortality”.
She said: “I could tell it was getting him down, so I really wanted to cheer him.
“We knew we couldn’t just buy him a present. It needed to be something more.
“I and another one of our colleagues, Howard, got together and came up with it to let him know how much we care.
“We wanted him to know he needed to keep fighting as there were people who loved and cared for him and wanted to see him fight it.”
Store and deputy managers from 22 branches in Leicestershire, Milton Keynes, Nottingham, Peterborough, Northampton, Coventry and elsewhere, had agreed to take part in the March for Men walk, to raise £20,000 for Prostate Cancer UK on October 21.
However, after Eddie’s death, the team decided to postpone the walk, deciding it was too raw and too close to the October 14 funeral.
It will now be going ahead on Wednesday, March 2, starting at 10am. Stores across the region are raising money in Eddie’s name through cake sales and charity events.
Angela said: “Eddie went through so many treatments, explored many options and received so much help from Prostate Cancer UK.
“He took part in several marches to help raise money for people in similar position.
“We just want his family to know how special he was and how much we cared. The walk to the Loughborough store has an emotional connection for us all and it’s something we know we can achieve for him.”
To donate to Eddie’s March for Men campaign, go to: