On May 27th, while on holiday, I received a call to say my dad, Bob, had suffered a major stroke, while he himself was also on holiday, thousands of miles away. After 3 weeks in a coma, numerous family members flying out, the Cypriot hospital gave permission for us to arrange a medical flight to get him home.

Bob was taken to Huddersfield Royal Infirmary ICU, the team there gave care at a level they would give their own loved ones and the emotional support and compassion to our family was incredible. Unfortunately, just over 24 hours of arriving back in the UK all tests told the hospital team that the kindest care would be to turn off the life support, allowing Bob a peaceful end to his journey, with all his family by his side.

After 19 years with Mandate Systems, Bob just going on his annual holiday at the time of his death, it hit the team hard and over the following weeks processing the circumstances shared multiple memories and stories.

Dedicated to work, Bob was always the first one in (and the first one out) and loved the engineering challenge of finding a solution. I was lucky (or unlucky, depending what he felt like on any given day 😉) to work with my dad for 13 years. This was difficult at times, with two head strong people, however not many get the opportunity to spend so much time with their dad and looking back now, I was blessed.

As part of our fundraising efforts and in memory of Bob, we have chosen to undertake the Calderdale Hike pretty much a year to Bob's death. This is a 27-mile hike, taking on 3800ft of ascent. Our Just Giving page is set up for the Stroke Association and Mandate Systems will match all donations raised to make a donation to the Huddersfield Royal Infirmary's ICU department, for the teams dedication and compassion shown to our family, at such a difficult time.

Thank you for your donation...it will help save others and support them also during their time of need.