A FORMER teacher who died of liver cancer was remembered by hundreds of people who united to raise money for charity in his memory.

Around 400 parents, teachers and pupils from Sherfield School, in Reading Road, took part in a 5km fun run around the school grounds on Saturday for the Marie Curie cancer charity, as a tribute to former teacher Richard Ash.

The 40-year-old lost his battle with liver cancer on May 25 last year after he was diagnosed that February.

Ryan Lock, a PE teacher at the school, arranged the event, which has so far raised £2,000 for the charity, although this figure is expected to rise.

Richard’s mother and father, Lorna and Gordon Ash, both attended the event, and his brother Christopher took part in the 5km run.

Year 10 pupil Henry Morris beat everyone to the finish line to win the race.

Richard’s father Gordon told The Gazette: “It was an extremely successful event and it was called Dash for Ash in his name.

“From what we have heard, he made a huge contribution to the school and was a very engaging person who touched the hearts of kids, staff and parents and it was just unfortunate that his life was cut short by this cancer which was very aggressive.”

The 68-year-old added: “He was very outgoing, positive and very upbeat. He lived for the day and that was always his saying. He just wanted to see the schoolchildren enjoying life at school and the headmaster said one of the things he did was getting people to participate no matter how good or bad they were.”

Mr Lock added: “It went really well. It is the first time we have held this and the attendance was fantastic and we had parents, staff and students. The reason we did this was because Richard said that if there was anything he could do, it would be to raise money for Marie Curie.

“The kids absolutely loved him and he was Mr Popular. He ran the scholarship programme so he would be up at four in the morning taking ice skaters to the Leisure Park and stayed up really late at night doing lots of different activities. He was really close to many members of the school.”

The 29-year-old added: “The children loved it. It will be an annual event and we will definitely do it every year.”