A PUB landlord who lost his daughter to cancer 10 years ago this month has received national recognition after raising nearly £100,000 for charity.
Joe Gildea, who runs The Ship Victory, in George Street, Chester, lost his daughter Angela in January, 2002 to breast cancer.
The grandfather-of-three said Angela, who was an officer in the 610 City of Chester Air Cadets, had noticed a lump on her breast after travelling to Canada. She was diagnosed with breast cancer in August and within five months she had died.
He said: “She was so young and it was really unexpected. She fought hard but the cancer was very aggressive.”
Since her untimely death, Joe has been working tirelessly to raise funds for the Countess of Chester Hospital breast cancer care unit through a wide range of charitable events.
Joe’s pub, on Gorstacks car park, which he runs with Helen Moroney, is one of three Cheshire pubs that have been selected to make The Famous Grouse Famous Pubs 2011.
Launched by The Famous Grouse, the competition searched all over the country for three months to find pubs with ‘unique and quirky’ reasons for their fame, just like The Famous Grouse.
Joe, 72, said: “Our pub has been named one of the top 100 pubs in the UK and one of the top 12 in the North West.
“The reason they chose us is because we raised £95,000 in 10 years for the local breast care unit at the Countess of Chester. We have been collecting for the breast care unit since my daughter’s death. Before she died we had been collecting money for charity anyway, including Miles for Smiles and MIND.”
“As part of the competition they asked, ‘We’re famous, why are you famous?’ They invited people to send little slips in explaining why. We got this big plaque saying we are now a famous pub.”
He added: “We raised the money through a wide range of initiatives. We have a quiz on a Thursday, a raffle on the Sunday night and every now and again we do big theme nights. For example, we are doing one for the Jubilee and one for Easter. We also have regular karaoke nights.
“We do the turkey trot every year at Chester Racecourse and we hold a rounders match at Chester Cathedral. There was also a chap who did a parachute jump two days before his 80th birthday.”