WHEN Ray Armstrong founded the Lake District Farmers Armstrong Family Charitable Fund in 2012, he left behind a legacy fitting of his philanthropic nature and generous spirit.

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Hayden Armstrong has vivid memories of the last time his dad came to watch him play football.

Around a month before he died, despite the combination of liver and pancreatic cancer weakening his body, Ray Armstrong found the strength to stand on a touchline in Dalton and support his son.

“I remember he was really ill, Hayden says. “It was a horrible day and he really wasn’t well. But he came.

“I’ll never forget that. That summed him up as a person really, that even at his weakest he came and watched me. He got out of bed and came to see me on a cold and wet, windy day. That was who he was.”

Hayden is speaking publicly about his dad for the first time since Mr Armstrong’s death in April 2013, as preparations take shape for a fourth annual charity event held in the well-known Barrow businessman’s honour.

Set up following Mr Armstrong’s diagnosis in August 2012, the Lake District Farmers Armstrong Family Charitable Fund has raised and donated more than £155,000 in his name.

The popular philanthropist’s memory has been kept alive by the generosity of the Barrow community turning out year after year to show support for the various local charities, families and organisations which benefit from the fund’s work.

The annual three-night celebrity chef event is organised by loyal staff from Mr Armstrong’s companies – Lake District Farmers and PKA.

“My dad was careful with his trust,” Hayden says, “but when it comes to the companies he trusted every one of them with his whole heart.

And you can see that now, in the hours they do and in what their work means to them.

“At LDF especially, a lot of the lads didn’t really know my dad, but they speak of ‘Ray’ a lot. His footprint is so firmly on the company that even people who never met him know what he expected.”

This is the first year that Hayden will be fully in the thick of the LDF workforce during preparations for the charity event.

The 22-year-old, of Abbey Road, Barrow, joined the team full-time after a fire destroyed their premises last June, the plan having initially been to spend time working with each of his dad’s companies. He had previously spent three years studying for a degree in business management.

Hayden says: “If my dad was still here I would maybe have liked to stay in Manchester or gone abroad, to the US maybe, but obviously when he got ill I knew I had more responsibility to start in the companies.

“It’s looking after the family as well. We all muck in and help each other out.

“My dad was strong, he looked after everything. He ran the businesses but he also looked after us all, and after we lost him we had to find the strength between us to do that together.”

While a relentless force when it came to his businesses, Mr Armstrong was devoted to Hayden and his brothers Hal, 25, Cavan, 13, and Pierce, who passed away in 2007 aged 20.

“He was a great dad,” Hayden tells me. “He was big on morals and manners, on us being brought up right. He loved spending time with us.

“Cav’s very much like my Dad, he’s bolshy and will tell you what you’re doing. Hal is the same, very get-up-and-go. He lives life at 100 miles-per-hour.

“I think I’m very much the laid back one, and the memory of my dad is what prevents me from becoming too much that way. He was always the one who made sure we stayed driven.”

One particular ambition Mr Armstrong instilled in Hayden was a desire to succeed in his studies.

After being diagnosed with cancer just weeks before his son was due to start his first year, Mr Armstrong persuaded him not to give up his place at Manchester Metropolitan University.

Hayden recalls: “He said, ‘When you go to university I want you to try your hardest’.

“He said, ‘I’d love you to come back with a first class honours degree’. That was really why I went, and why I worked so hard.”

This summer, Hayden realised his dad’s dream when he graduated with a first. “I’d have loved him to be there,” he says, “but I would love him to be there every day.

“Every day, there’s always something that reminds me of him. Every day I’ll be doing something and I’ll think, ‘What would he do?’

“He’s in everything we do. Absolutely everything.”

<u> Top chefs relish the chance to play their part </u>

The fourth annual Lake District Farmers Armstrong Family Charitable Fund celebrity chef event will run from Thursday February 4 until Saturday 6.

Names on the line-up include Great British Menu star, Mark Froydenlund, local food hero, Simon Rogan, and Clare Smyth MBE, chef patron at Restaurant Gordon Ramsay and the first female British chef to hold three Michelin stars.

Tickets for one night, hosted and sponsored by Clarence House Country Hotel and Restaurant in Dalton, cost £100 each.

This includes a six-course tasting menu supplied by three different chefs, champagne and canapes on arrival and entertainment during the evening. To book tickets, call Sarah on 01229 870168.