Bikers from Eccles and Salford will turn out out in force this coming Thursday 2 July to say a final farewell to one of their friends, Jeff Storey.
Jeff, 66, passed away on Monday 22 June at St Ann’s Hospice.
He was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in April 2015 and after sadly died after a courageous battle with the illness.
Jeff’s funeral takes place on Thursday 2 July at Peel Green Cemetery at 12.30pm.
From 12.15pm a party of motorcyclists will escort the coffin to the cemetery from Carriages funeral parlour on Liverpool Road in Patricroft.
Jeff was a familar figure around Eccles and Patricroft and was a lover of real ale and music, his two favourite pubs being Wangies and The Queens Arms.
His best friend of 20 years Andrea Brown said: “We are all terribly shocked at Jeff’s death but he has left so many memories that he will never be forgotten.
“Even though he didn’t have any family he was not a lonely man at all, he was popular with everyone he met and seemed to have hundreds of friends.
“It was an odd sort of relationship really, we were 30 years apart, but he was like a surrogate father to me, we went on all sort of adventures together.
“I knew him from the age of six when he was regular visitor to our house. He was great company even for somebody a lot younger than him.
“He was a really lovely bloke, and everybody knew him, in fact it was almost impossible to go anywhere in the country without somebody recognising him.
“He did look like the proverbial rocker but he had a sensitive side to him.
“At Christmas he would come to our house for dinner and would buy me and my husband a present and two for our kitten!
“He was also a really good artist having exhibited some of his work at Eccles Art Gallery, he worked in oils and acrylics, there was also a hand painted leather jacket on display, I still have some of his work hanging on my wall.”
“His other loves were old-fashioned TV programmes such as Dad’s Army and Last of the Summer Wine, in fact we rode to Holmfirth where they film it so he could have a look around and a pint in the Woolpack of course.”
Chris Kane is the joint executor on Jeff’s will.
He said: “For his funeral he has requested that there should be no flowers: he didn’t think that flowers should be pulled from the soil but instead left alone.
“He wasn’t one to stand on ceremony,” said Chris, “and he requested that everybody wear ‘normal’ clothes. He had a dislike of suits after going to a job interview in one many years ago, which is typical Jeff.”
If anyone would like to make a small charitable donation, they can do so online at Carriage’s Funeral Parlour and all donations will be split between St Ann’s Hospice and the National Association for Bikers with a Disability.
