FAMILY and friends of a grandfather who bravely fought cancer for 30 years are getting ready to take on a daunting fundraiser in his memory.

Dennis Baron passed away on Easter Sunday after battling cancer for most of his adult life.

Now 15 of his closest friends and family are getting ready to abseil 121 feet at Barns Ness Lighthouse, near Dunbar, to raise money for charity.

Among them is his daughter Kirsty, who admitted she was terrified of heights.

She said: “My dad was very brave and courageous. As much as he could be grumpy, he never moaned once. He just got on with it, whatever they threw at him, he just got on with it.”

Dennis, who had lived in North Berwick for more than 45 years, previously worked at the Ben Sayers factory and North Berwick’s Co-op store.

Kirsty, of Gilbert Avenue, said: “My dad doted on his kids and grandkids especially.

“Thirty years ago he was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma and then two years later he was diagnosed again with the same thing.

“On his 50th birthday he was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma again and went through gruelling treatment – radiotherapy and chemotherapy. Then, five years ago, on his 60th birthday, he was diagnosed with bowel cancer and had a serious operation when he lost an amount of his bowel.

“He signed a consent form for Professor Malcolm Dunlop to do research and this is why we want to give money back to him. Last year in June my dad started to take not well.

“Then a couple of months later he was diagnosed again and it had spread into his liver and his lungs. He chose to attempt chemotherapy to help him but he could not complete the course – it was giving him no quality of life.”

Professor Dunlop is a professor of coloproctology and consultant colorectal surgeon at Edinburgh’s Western General Hospital.

Now Kirsty is getting ready to take the plunge and make her way down the iconic lighthouse on September 22 in memory of her dad, who lived on the town’s Lochbridge Road.

Kirsty, 41, who will be joined by her brother Steven Baron and sister-in-law Lorna, son Kieran and daughter Gemma, as well as other close family and friends, told the Courier she was so scared of heights that she could not even cross the Forth Road Bridge or climb North Berwick Law.

She added: “Even when he had just months to live, he never wanted a fuss.

“He would had not have wanted what we are doing for him.

“What he has gone through for 30 years, it is the least we can do to give back.”

To make a donation, go to justgiving.com/fundraising/dennisbaron or text DWBA65 to 70070.