Keith died from advanced Mesothelioma (pronounced mee-so-thee-lee-oma), the devastating cancer contracted following unprotected exposure to Asbestos, on 22 June 2012 leaving his family in utter shock and disbelief. He was diagnosed with Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis in February 2010 and was receiving successful treatment for this condition which allowed him to continue working as a Plumber; go fishing with friends; enjoy his motorbike and take regular trips to Florida with his family.

On 21 May 2012, he developed Pneumonia in his right lung and this was drained of 4.5 litres of fluid. He came home from hospital on 27 May but the fluid returned and he became desperately breathless resulting in his readmittance on 8 June. A tissue biopsy was arranged and this took place on 18 June after Keith struggled to breathe and was placed on a ventilator. Tragically this confirmed he had advanced Mesothelioma and he passed away, surrounded by his loved ones, 4 days later on 22 June 2012 completely unaware of his condition.

His wife Carrol, along with his children Stephen and TJ have set up this lasting tribute to a very special person in his memory. He was a kind, generous, caring and funny man who dealt with his illness with great dignity and courage.We are all so grateful that Keith never knew he had this devastating condition as to have been aware of the diagnosis, and the chronic stage of this horrific disease, would have troubled him deeply.

His family and friends donated £915 to the Mick Nighton Mesothelioma Research Fund (MKMRF) in lieu of flowers and in memory of a very special person. We are so pleased to be able to set up not only this page, but to create a Memorial Snowdrop Fund page on their website giving us the opportunity to have a lasting tribute and can continue to raise money that will go directly to the research into this heinous disease. Whilst it cannot bring Keith back to us, it can hopefully help others who have yet to face this diagnosis in the future.

Presently 5,000 people a year will die of this disease and this figure is estimated to rise to 10,000 by the year 2020. There are 33% more deaths attributable to Mesothelioma than Cervical Cancer with one death from Mesothelioma every 5 hours!

You too can donate in memory of Keith - if you feel able to donate any amount towards this fund I, Keith's children and his family would be so grateful.  If you have visited this page, I hope it has helped raise your awareness of this awful condition - this in itself is a positive step.  Thank you for taking the time to visit Keith's JustGiving Page. Your details are safe with JustGiving they'll never sell them on or send unwanted emails. Once you donate, they'll send your money directly to the charity and make sure Gift Aid is reclaimed on every eligible donation by a UK taxpayer. Please dig deep and donate now x

UPDATE 24 OCTOBER 2012 - My colleagues from SSE in Perth held a Halloween Fund Raiser Day to raise funds for Keith's page.  Everyone in the HR Services team dressed up and organised a day of "scary meal deals"; raffles and cake baking competitions judged by some of the Senior Management team including the HR Director, Chief Executive and Managing Director of Networks.  A whopping £2,257 was raised on the day with Ipads, photography sessions, dedicated car parking spaces etc up for grabs!  What a fantastic day it was - thank you, thank you, thank you to everyone who helped make this day the utter success it was.

UPDATE 27 OCTOBER 2012 - We decided to carry on our annual tradition of hosting a Halloween Party at our home with friends and family.  Everyone donated something to help make the night another roaring success, from food (those who know me know my cooking abilities!), to a donation from the Dry Ice Company (Green Gases in Hampshire) and Photographer (ICU Smile in Dundee) used on the night.  Once again, everyone dressed up and great fun was had by all.  A total of £261 was collected with a further £70 donated from Green Gases and ICU Smile, and £57 collected from sales of the family photos taken by the Photographer Scott Sigsworth resulting in a grand total of £388!  Collection tins were also used to collect for the local charity group Asbestos Action Tayside with £64 collected. 

The success of both events was reported in the local newspapers and we have decided to take this to another level next year and develop our families Annual Halloween Celebrations into an annual fund raiser event in memory of Keith.  Watch this space for further developments.

UPDATE 28 JANUARY 2013 - The Pheonix Tartan Army in Glenrothes donated a massive £456.43 to Keith's page in honour of their fellow supporter and member of this branch of The Tartan Army.  Thank you to each and every one of you for this extremely kind and generous donation. It really touched us all - Keith would be so chuffed with your generosity!

UPDATE 1 MARCH 2013 - Our good family friend Lesley Pert and her colleagues in the HR Team at Hillcrest held a Ladies Night to raise funds for Keith's page - over £600 raised and a fantastic night was had by all.  Thank you all for a great night, well planned and laid out. 

UPDATE 29 MARCH 2013 - Lesley and her colleagues from Hillcrest organised a fabulous Race Night to raise funds for Keith's Page held at the Dee Club in Dundee.  What a night .... prizes galore, great fun and a HUGE amount raised with the help of all our friends and family - thank you to EVERYONE who helped organise the event, and especially to all those who attended and dug very deep to help this cause.  Over £6000 raised that night - WOW!!

The success of these events was reported in the Evening Telegraph on 5th July - what a phenomenal effort and amount. Am so so humbled and so very grateful to the HR Team at Hillcrest Dundee, and to Lesley Pert in particular xx

UPDATE 5 JULY 2013 - TJ and I attended the MKMRF National Mesothelioma Day Conference in Newcastle where I had been asked to deliver a presentation about Keith and all our fundraising efforts to the delegates and other presenters who included Consultants who specialise in Lung Cancer; Research Fellows working for MKMRF & The British Lung Foundation; Nurse Specialists and Lawyers who act on behalf of sufferers. I was so proud to be able to tell them about the marvellous energy that surrounds all of our fundraising events in memory of Keith. It was hugely emotional but very worthwhile to have the opportunity to pay a fitting tribute to everyone who has helped raise this money, but also to be able to share Keith's incredible story in the hope that this not only raises awareness of this little understood cancer but helps the Researchers understand more about its onset and why it evades detection so well. Colleagues in SSE's Communications Team have very kindly offered to help me prepare a video of the presentation to upload to this site :)

UPDATE 3 AUGUST 2013 - Our dear friends, Cliff, Kev, Mark and Paul reformed their well known cover band, Hangin Elvis for one night to raise funds for Keith's Page. They performed two sets, both fantastic and had everyone on their feet from the minute they set foot on stage, until they left to rapturous applause!  A young up-and-coming band in Dundee, The Alley, kicked of the night with a set of their own songs and our friend DJ Bowie (John Sandeman) filled the gap between the two. Grant from Fat Sam's donated their LIVE venue for the gig; Gordon Sedgwick provided an awesome PA system; and photographer Scott Sigsworth from ICU Smile once again covered our event, all in all a trully professional night (very "rock n roll") and the pictures prove it!.  What a wonderful night, for such a great cause with £577 raised!.  You guys have done wonders to raise the profile of this charity and the disease they are working hard to understand better.  Watch out for "Hangin Elvis in Costume" at the Halloween Party in October and, for those of you who enjoyed listening to Ryan; Luke; Jamie and Kieran from The Alley, you will have another opportunity to see and hear them again when they play a guest spot on the Saturday Night of our two-night Halloween Event :o)  Thank you, one and all, for everything you did to pull that night together, SO grateful to you all xx

UPDATE 30 AUGUST 2013 – The planned Climb_4_Keith where we set of to climb Britain’s Highest Mountain, Ben Nevis took a jaw dropping twist when I decided to join them!  Very much a stranger to all that is fitness and physical effort, I really did not know what I was letting myself in for (thankfully!).  I and my SSE colleagues Ad, Sharon, Margaret, Jannette and Stacey set of from Perth and scaled then descended the Mountain in good time – 7 hours.  We encountered driving rain, 40-50mph winds and even hailstones but, kept laughing and smiling all the way (well, most of the way!).  These women raised £1,115 which, when gift aid is added turns into £1,388.75 for the page, and earned every single penny of it – thank you to those 5 Angels and to everyone who donated money to this page to encourage them!  Well done ladies, well done the donators and well done our legs and our spirits which stayed SOLID throughout the climb!

UPDATE 26 OCTOBER 2013 – The spOOky events at Castle Horror this weekend were a FANG-tastic finale to all of our fund raising events!! Everyone dressed up, the bands were FRIGHT-fully good, the location was stunning and we all had a ball (pity about the weather though, rain prevented us from having our spOOktacular Ghost Hunt in the walled garden).

A very handsome £809.35 was raised for the charity which they are absolutely thrilled with. Our total now exceeds £14,500, something I never thought possible when I started this out to remember Keith - he'd be so proud of us all for doing this in his honour..

Thank you, once again, from the very bottom of our hearts for all that our friends, family and colleagues have done, to honour Keith's legacy through this vitally important fund raising.

It's now time to hang up the fund raising hat and concentrate on moving forward, so we bid you all a very fond, and sincere, "goodnight" from Carrol, Stephen & TJ ....... thank you xxxx