A TERMINALLY-ill pensioner has been left “absolutely gobsmacked” by Keighley people’s generosity in helping him fulfil his bucket-list dream.

Well-wishers donated £1,000 in just two days so that Ron Scholefield could travel to Ireland to take part in a special fishing challenge.

Ron, 76, who has esophageal cancer, will be able to fish on the Grand Canal for the last time as he travels to the canal in County Kildare for the first time in 25 years.

Retired special-needs driver Ron was this week full of praise for the complete strangers who rallied to an appeal from Azeem “Jimmy” Hussain who runs his favourite electronics shop in Keighley.

Ron said: “Jimmy asked me what I had on my bucket list and I said I wanted to go fishing in Ireland but couldn’t afford it because I'm a pensioner.

“I’m absolutely overwhelmed with the response – people who I don’t know donated 100 quid each which isn’t peanuts.

“It restored my faith in human nature. You hear about all these bad things in the world but this is so good.

"I want to thank everyone who donated. It’s been overwhelming – me and my wife Jackie were in tears about it.”

Keighley-born Jimmy, 31, who runs the neighbouring Game On and Total Electronics Exchange (TEX) shops in Hanover Street, this week heard about Ron’s cancer diagnosis as they chatted while he was buying a tablet.

And as 73-year-old Ron headed off on a fishing trip in Mablethorpe with wife Jacqueline and son John Burdett, Jimmy set up an online Go Fund Me page and put donations boxes in his shops.

Within two days the initial £1,000 target had been exceeded, and donations can continue until this Friday at gofundme.com/rons-last-fishing-trip.

Jimmy said: “Ron is a good customer of ours and loves phones and gadgets. I asked how he was and he said he had cancer and he didn’t have long to live.

“He doesn’t want to have the treatment, he just wants to have the life while he can. He’s so cool about it, it’s unbelievable.”

The original intention was for Ron to go to Ireland with his family to take part in the keenly-fought Grand Canal Prosperous fishing tournament later, which he regularly competed in during the late 1980s.

Ron discovered that there are no places left in the competition this month, so he plans instead to go to the Grand Canal later in the summer to fish away from the crowds and enjoy the ‘craic’.