A BARROW man auctioned a painting as part of a £5,000 fundraising effort for a local cancer charity.

On October 20, award winning watchmaker Bremont hosted an event to celebrate the launch of their brand-new Limited-Edition Longitude Collection. They celebrated this at the Greenwich Maritime Museum.

On the evening, a painting of the Royal Observatory at Greenwich was auctioned. The painting had been donated by Kevin Cookmead, who lives in Barrow and has a terminal cancer diagnosis.

He said: "I could see the difference in Helen every time she came home after her treatments at the centre in Barrow and we're really grateful for this. Donating the money from the painting was the least we could do to give something back."

Mr Cookmead and his brother Rikki, have a passion for watches and as part of his bucket-list of "things to do" were afforded a private tour of the new Bremont HQ.

A flippant comment from Mr Cookmead and several emails later and the painting was being auctioned. His wife Helen received support from CancerCare earlier this year and they wanted the monies raised to be donated to the charity.

Bids were done via a QR and a secret auction process on the night.

CancerCare want to say a huge thank you to Bremont for giving Mr Cookmead the opportunity and in turn, helping to support more local people like Helen.

CancerCare’s Director of Fundraising and Marketing said: “As a local charity we are always hugely grateful for the support of people like Kev and Helen who have benefitted from the work we do and choose to do something incredibly generous for us in return.

"We support hundreds of people across the Furness Peninsula who have been devastated by a cancer diagnosis or bereavement and we can only do this thanks to public donations.

"The thoughtfulness of Kev and Helen, and Bremont, will allow us to continue to be there for the many local people who maybe won’t be expecting to have such a happy time this Christmas.”