A WORKINGTON poet by the name of John Hastings raised the Pride flag over the weekend with the help of Mayor Herbert Briggs.

To mark the International Day of Pride, John said: “I’m a proud ally of the LGBTQ+ community. I have a lot of friends in the community and I’ve always gone out of my way to support the community, especially at Cumbria Pride.

“When it started in 2010, I helped promote the event through social media and organised acts for them.”

John is currently working on a poem for Pride at Carlisle castle in September, he said: “It’s like the old saying: ‘you don’t have to have a horse to be a jockey’ — you don’t have to be gay to support LGBTQ+ rights.”

John has been writing poetry for 13 years and the pandemic hasn’t stopped him.

He was able to perform on stage for the first time since the initial lockdown at the British Legion to mark Armed Forces Day. He wrote a new poem for the occasion.

John said: “I read my Armed Forced day poem and at the end, two soldiers and veterans came up and they said ‘that was fantastic’. One of them said to me it had moved him to tears.

“You can’t explain that feeling when people tell you that, you feel pride.” he said.

Living in Workington all of his life John has a compassionate heart for his community.

The 48-year-old has contributed immensely to charities and fundraisers in the county.

He has previously raised £8,000 for Cancer Research UK by tackling the Great Cumbrian Run seven times, running three 10k Workington races, a rowing marathon at Workington Leisure Centre, and holding charity nights and karaoke fundraisers.

John has been fundraising for Cancer Research UK for more than a decade with voluntary work and the cause is close to his heart as he has lost relatives to the disease.

He said: “When Cancer Research opened its shop in Workington, it invited me to officially open it as a thank you for raising money.”

Getting fighting fit at his local gym, John hopes to continue his fundraising work very soon.

“It’s hard to organise with the pandemic, but these past couple months have been much better for me. I’m in a good place.”