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A former school teacher who later became known for his mission to remove rubbish from his local village in Trafford has died at the age of 84.
Keith Neal would walk an average of 750 miles a year picking up litter from near his home in Hale and in south Manchester in an effort to tidy the streets. He died peacefully in his sleep on Saturday (April 8).
Keith, who taught biology at Manchester Grammar School from 1976 until 1999, became a local pin-up star as part of his ‘Keith Says’ advertising campaign which encouraged people to throw their rubbish away properly.
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Ten years ago, in 2013, Keith made headlines when he collected more than 1,000 discarded rubber bands from the streets after they were dumped by postal workers. He later returned them back to Royal Mail. By 2014, he had collected 3,000.
He told the Daily Mail at the time: “We all need to care more for our environment and show through example that we can all do our bit.”
Keith would regularly walk at least three miles a day as part of his litter-picking mission, saying it was good exercise and helped him stay fit.
In July 2014, Keith and a group of friends from St Peter’s Church in Hale, which he regularly attended, started a bimonthly litter pick. The group has collected more than 1,000 bags of rubbish since it was launched.
Keith was a former Church Warden of St Peter’s Church and chaired the church’s Mission in Action Committee co-ordinating the parish’s charitable outreach.
“I was fortunate to know him as a fellow member of St Peter’s church where he and I were church wardens together,” Vicki Wells told the M.E.N.
“Despite being one of the older members of the congregation he had a very farsighted and innovative approach to the world and life in general, always one to challenge the status quo and always supporting the oppressed in society. His faith dictated but did not restrict his actions.”
During the lockdown in 2020, Keith began litter picking in a three-mile circuit of rural lanes near to his home. He recently said his aim was to complete 1,000 circuits – totalling 3,000 miles – before his 85th Birthday on November 1. He was less than 200 litter picks and 600 miles away from reaching his target before his passing.
Three months ago, Keith launched a JustGiving page to help raise money for St Peter’s Church, Friends of the Earth, and SolarAid. The page has raised more than £1,400 to date.
“I first started litter picking in 2014 with a community group initiated by St. Peter’s Church, Hale, Greater Manchester,” Keith said on the fundraising page. “Since March 2020, I have concentrated my efforts on tidying up some of the beautiful lanes that pass through threatened greenbelt land.
“For 23 years I was one of the many motorists using these lanes as an alternative route to and from the City of Manchester or Manchester Airport, avoiding busy stretches of the M56 motorway. Sadly, littering and fly-tipping are constant threats to the environment and to wildlife.”
He added: “In 2022, I walked more than 770 miles collecting 1,400 Kg of litter, enough to fill 284 large bin bags with an average of 4.9Kg of litter per bag. This rubbish included over 11,250 cigarette stubs, most of which had been thrown from vehicles during the six months from 16 Jan-15 July.”
Members of St Peter’s Church said Keith constantly tried to raise money for charity, whether it was for organisations close to home or further afield.
“Keith was very much the voice of mission at St Peter’s Hale and in the wider community,” church member John Moss said.
“Whilst he became known to a wider public for his litter picking activities, he was, for many years before that, at the forefront of bringing to the wider public aspects such as the Leprosy Mission, education in Sierra Leone, the planting of frankincense trees as part of the Pan Africa Forest, Water Aid and latterly SolarAid so that especially children had the means to be able to read and do homework after dark in Africa and South America.”
Chris Graham, reader at St Peter’s, said he last saw Keith a day before his passing at a Good Friday church service and saw him ‘walking off litter-picking as he went out’.
After the church shared the news of Keith’s passing on social media, other residents and church members posted their own touching tributes.
One person commented: “Keith is a legend. Me and my son always waved to him on Shay Lane where he could often be seen. The world needs more Keith’s. What a hero.”
Another said: “Oh my goodness this is such sad news. The world was a better place with Keith in it. May his legacy continue in those he inspired. God bless Keith.”
A litter pick on Sunday (April 16) will be held in tribute to Keith. Volunteers will be meeting at St Peter’s House in Ashley Road at 2pm.
Keith is survived by his wife Ruth, their three children, and grandchildren.
You can donate to Keith’s fundraiser here.
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