Last updated 19:46, Thursday, 24 July 2008

A MARYPORT man has died at the age of 45 after losing his second battle with cancer.

Trevor Richardson, originally of Gavel Street, was married with two young childrena father-of-two and his mum, Rose, of Gavel Street, Maryport, said Trevor was a special person.

Aged six, he was one of only four children in the world diagnosed with Perthes Disease, a condition where the top of the thigh bone softens and breaks down.

The bone usually reforms as a child grows but because Mr Richardson’s condition was not diagnosed early the bone did not recover.

It did not stop him, however, and he won a certificate for gymnastics.

Doctors were amazed and the family were told that he must have been in agony every time he did anything strenuous.

Although no cure was possible, Mr Richardson was taken to medical conferences at the request of an Edinburgh professor who assured him that it would help others diagnosed with the disease.

He was told he could never work but he took a job on a farm.

After a hip replacement aged 20, he was again told he could not work because his bones were crumbling.

When he was turned down for mobility allowance, he decided he would go back to work, and helped lay a large pipeline in the Ellen River.

Four years ago Mr Richardson was diagnosed with kidney cancer. He had a kidney removed and was given the all clear. He married Kirsty and the couple had two little boys, Tyler, now two-and-a-half years old and Connor, one.

Just recently, they moved from Tallentire to Workington, near Kirsty’s parents and to a house with a garden that the boys could play in.

On New Year’s Day, Mr Richardson told his parents that the cancer had come back and had spread to his bones and lungs.

“He handled it as he had everything - with extreme bravery,” said his mum Mrs Rose Richardson.

He died on June 29 at home.

Mrs Richardson said: “On the day he died we were all there - my husband Ronald and I, Trevor’s three brothers, his beautiful wife and his two little boys.”