THE lasting legacy of an angling club chairman has benefitted even more people after the bench his memorial replaced found a new home at the Hydrotherapy Pool.

Members of Plaum’s Pit Angling Club recently unveiled a memorial bench to pay tribute to former chairman Derek Cooke who died earlier this year. But when committee member Stanley Roper heard that the Hydrotherapy Pool was in need of a new bench themselves, he knew just where to find one for them.

Stanley, who began using the pool himself around eight years ago following an operation on his elbow, now volunteers with the pool and carries out odd jobs for them.

“They were looking to repair a bench in their own garden, but it was beyond repair,” he said. “It was completely rotton. We had just installed the new memorial bench, so the one that had been in its place before was surplus to requirements.”

With the blessing of the angling club, he took the bench home, sanded it down and painted it up to make it look smart ahead of its donation to the pool on Monday.

“It is a shame more people don’t use the pool,” he added. “I am sure there are a lot of people out there who would benefit from it – it has done me the world of good. I could barely swim when I first started, but in March this year I did 41 lengths. 18 months after having had my elbow done I was able to give my blue badge back because I didn’t need it any longer.”