GENEROUS friends, family and colleagues of a former moto-cross star have raised £4,000 in his memory to help others.The funds raised in memory of Lawrence Bird will be used to buy specialist beds to allow more terminally-ill patients to also spend their last days at home with their families.

GENEROUS friends, family and colleagues of a former moto-cross star have raised £4,000 in his memory to help others.

The funds raised in memory of Lawrence Bird will be used to buy specialist beds to allow more terminally-ill patients to also spend their last days at home with their families.

Mr Bird, of Rushmere St Andrew, Ipswich, died after a long fight with bone and liver cancer on July 1 but was able to spend his last days at home with his wife Sarah and 26-year-old son Aston thanks to an electric air mattress donated by Suffolk Community Equipment Services.

After his death Mrs Bird set up a fund to raise money to help others in a similar situation and raise awareness that there was such a service.

After collecting £4,000 Mrs Bird was able to make a presentation at the Bluebird Lodge centre, Ipswich, yesterday.

The money was enough to buy two beds, complete with electric air mattress and syringe drives. Mrs Bird said she was “overwhelmed” as the amount was £1,000 more than anticipated.

She said: “It is a lovely tribute to Lawrence, who was very much respected and well liked by all who knew him.

“My dad, John Rush, sadly died of cancer eight years ago in St Elizabeth Hospice and it is a wonderful place, but it was so important to us to have Lawrence at home.”

She said the loan bed allowed her husband to die peacefully and with dignity and thanked everyone who had helped to raise the money.