Classy cars for hospice

Michael Tarpey, 47, organised the car show at Trinity Hospice in Bispham on Saturday to raise money for the dedicated staff who cared for his brother-in-law Steven, who died from cancer in 2013.

More than 50 people drove their rare and expensive cars into the hospice at Low Moor Road for the show.

Mr Tarpey, who lives at Richmond Avenue in Cleveleys, said: “I held a charity event in 2013 and ever since then I have raised money for Trinity. Just before Christmas I got the idea of doing a car show and asked for cars of interest from local enthusiasts and it just set off from there.

“We got a Shelby Cobra and we even got an MG Super Car. There were only around 80 of them ever made and even now they sell for up to £40,000.”

The event raised more than £300 for the hospice, and saw lucky winner Liz Scott take home the gold trophy for best car with her Rover 75 V6.

Mr Tarpey said: “You could tell she was a proud owner of it and she loved the car. It was immaculate. She was constantly polishing it and buffing it up.”

The father-of-three added that he was proud to raise money for the hospice which helped his brother-in-law during his final days.

He said: “Trinity Hospice is superb. It took some time to persuade Steven to go in because he was frightened that it was going to be like the hospital and I said ‘if you don’t like it in there I’ll carry you out myself’. He went in and he loved it and that was about 10 days before he passed away.

“He had a peaceful end. They made him very happy in there. The nurses are wonderful; I couldn’t fault them.

“I think people raise money for charities like Cancer Research and the British Heart Foundation which is important, but so is looking after individuals.

“The way I see it, even if we just raised enough to buy staff teabags, it’s doing something to help take the strain off.”

Lisa Martin, communications fund-raiser at Trinity Hospice, said: “We are 
incredibly grateful to the group for organising an event in aid of us.”