Family's pride after Burnley dad donates body to medical science

Mr Alan Shaw who died in February last year, dedicated his retirement to the Blood Bikes Volunteer Service, a role which would see him responding to calls at any hour of the day or night and riding with precious cargo across a wide rural location in Scotland where he moved to in the 1980s.

Now his proud family would like all his former friends in Burnley to know of his final act of kindness, which they hope will benefit other families in the future.

Alan, who attended St Stephen’s Junior School and Burnley Grammar School, completed his apprenticeship as a plumber and also joined the Royal Navy.

He moved to Dumfries and Galloway in Scotland as a heating engineer and on retirement became a volunteer for the local Food Bank, became an appropriate adult and joined the Blood Bikes Volunteer Service.

The Dumfries and Galloway Blood Bikes have been traditionally named after female patients who have been supported by the service. However, due to the efforts of the amazing fund-raisers, a new Blood Bike has been purchased and named after Alan.

His proud daughter Julie Peart said: "Dad was passionate about his role and worked proudly also promoting the service, giving talks to local communities and supporting the amazing fund-raising team.

"The bike is up and running, providing a valuable service, in the name of dad and we could not be any prouder of him than we are.

"Dad carried out his last duty on Remembrance Day 2019 when he attended the Remembrance service and parade in Stranraer. He had been diagnosed with cancer and been receiving treatment for the last few years, but unfortunately, he had become too unwell to continue riding his beloved bike.

"We sadly lost dad on February 9th 2020. Dad, selfless to the end, donated his body to medical science.

"We arranged a celebration of his life to be held in his home village of Port Logan. The Blood Bikers were proudly going to do a ride along the bay with his wife Mary, children, Julie, Cathy and Andrew, sister Margaret, brother in law Raymond, family and friends all joining in to say goodbye.

"However, the outbreak of Covid has prevented us from having dad’s celebration; we hope to be able to plan this in the coming months. Wonderful tributes have been paid to dad for all of his services in the community, particularly from the Blood Bike family, nationwide.

"Dad still has family and many friends living in Burnley and I hope that they will share our happiness at this wonderful tribute."