Trainer Bobby, 40, dies after cancer battle

AN ‘INSPIRATIONAL’ personal trainer devoted to his family and helping others has tragically died following a gruelling cancer battle. Social media has been flooded with tributes to dad-of-three Bobby Power, who passed away aged 40.

Bobby, of Alkrington, was a youth player at Manchester United in the 1990s and starred as ‘Gorgeous’ Gordon Burley in cult 2000 football film, There’s Only One Jimmy Grimble. More recently, he gained a huge following on social media as a motivational fitness guru who loved climbing outdoors and sharing messages to help others.

“He was really outgoing,” Bobby’s middle daughter, Kaitlyn Eadsforth, told the Guardian.

“Literally anywhere he went, he would talk to anyone. He was like a social butterfly, in any room that he went in.

“If he wasn’t at the gym he was climbing mountains. He loved helping other people. That’s what he was all about really – helping people physically and mentally.”

Bobby was particularly well known in north Manchester, having been raised in Newton Heath before living in Ancoats, New Moston and most recently Alkrington, in Middleton. He had been incredibly fit, and would visit the gym three times a day, Kaitlyn said. That made Bobby’s devastating diagnosis even more shocking to

●●Bobby Power would climb mountains and inspire others

his loved ones. Recalling the moment Bobby told her he had pancreatic cancer, mum Estrella Barry said: “I was like ‘no way, not you... you’re going to live to 110’. But unfortunately it was true.”

Bobby first felt something was wrong as he felt more tired than usual after climbing a mountain, and he ‘thought it was down to training’. But he soon began lacking appetite, before he began to appear ‘yellow’.

“He spent the rest of his life trying to find a cure,” said Estrella. “He wanted to live for his girls. He did everything he could.” As his cancer progressed, Bobby’s muscles began to waste away, and his appearance dramatically changed.

He was moved into Dr Kershaw’s Hospice, in Oldham. “He thought he was going in to get strong so he could get chemotherapy in Liverpool,” Estrella said. “But unfortunately that’s the last place he went.”

Bobby’s family say the team at Dr Kershaw’s were ‘amazing’ as he spent the final weeks of his life there. The hospice was also the venue for his ‘beautiful’ wedding to Jemma Powerbliss on Valentine’s Day, in front of friends and family.

Moving footage shows groom Bobby sat down in his wedding suit, before bride Jemma embraces him with a hug. She then sat down next to

Bobby and held his hand, with her bouquet in the other.

Estrella added: “He couldn’t walk or anything. He was like a little skeleton. It was what he wanted, but a few weeks later he died. He has inspired so many people because he was just such an active person.”

Bobby died on February 29, leaving behind daughters Loren, 20, Kaitlyn, 19, and Heidi, 12. His friend, Leigh Sarsfield, is raising funds for Dr Kershaw’s Hospice by running a 100-mile ultra-marathon with 40 laps of Dovestone Reservoir – find out more on his Gofundme page.