Camden New Journal - by SIMON WROE Published: 11 October 2007
Hamper cheer: Bill O’Connor and Pat Logue, December 2006
Gentleman campaigner loses battle with cancer
Tireless charity fundraiser who helped everyone, rich or poor
A TIRELESS fundraiser and much-loved Camden Town figure who gave a voice to many cancer sufferers has finally lost his own battle with the disease.
Hailed by family and friends as a “proper gentleman” and “a great fellow”, Bill O’Connor was known to many for his big heart, his love of Manchester United and horse racing and his distinctive speaking voice, the result of a laryngectomy operation.
He died in University College Hospital in the early hours of Thursday, aged 76, after a long battle with lung cancer.
Kathy O’Connor, his wife of 49 years, said: “Everybody loved him. He suffered terribly but he never complained, never. He was the talk of Camden – a proper gentleman and a good husband.”
Following the removal of his larynx due to throat cancer 20 years ago, Mr O’Connor, from Rydal Water in Robert Street, was forced to speak through a ‘server’ box.
But instead of silencing him, the experience galvanised him into action. Besides continuing to work as a cleaning supervisor at Euston station (where he had worked since arriving in London from Ireland in 1960), Mr O’Connor began to raise money for sufferers of disease or poverty. Mrs O’Connor said: “Raising money to help out the ill was his passion. He helped everyone, rich or poor.”
He raised thousands of pounds for the National Association of Laryngectomee Clubs, his efforts supplying other throat cancer sufferers with voice boxes and special communication computers. He was chairman of their Speaker’s Corner club until earlier this year.
Mr O’Connor retired from work on grounds of ill-health in 1988, but his passion for fundraising and life never ceased.
He could often be found in the Sovereign and the Golden Lion pubs supping his pint of John Smith, and his pool playing won him so many pub trophies over the years that he earned the nickname ‘The Hustler’. He continued to play right up until he was hospitalised, and was chairman of the Chalk Farm League.
Mr O’Connor was also a devoted reader of the New Journal, and once a year he would turn his fundraising powers to the paper’s Christmas Hamper fund, lifting his thin electronic voice over the background hubbub of his favourite pubs to ask drinkers to dig deep for a good cause.
Mrs O’Connor said: “He loved the New Journal so much, he wouldn’t read any other paper. Even when we went on holiday he’d ask the neighbours to get him a copy.” Even on his death-bed, she said, he was insistent that his charity box found its way to the New Journal.
Pat Logue, manager of the Oxford Arms in Camden High Street, remembered Bill as a man “who enjoyed life to the full”.
Mr Logue said: “He’s been an inspiration – how he’s dealt with his life and overcome adversity. He was a great fellow.”
Mr O’Connor is survived by his wife Kathy and son Michael.
The Mass will be on October 15 at 5pm. The funeral will be on October 16 at 12pm at Our Lady of Hal Church in Arlington Road, Camden Town.
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