Manchester poet Mike Garry was running a project for the Stroke Association and Steve went along to get involved. The two quickly became great friends.
Mike remembers:
"I was working for the Stroke Association who had approached me to do a number of workshops in some of their community cafes, so I started in Gorton and that’s where I met Steve.
I got on with him straight away. I think I did six sessions there; he came to every one. I really encouraged him to write; he came out with some really great writing. Genuine. He had a real skill, a real talent.
Then the other stuff I did, Steve would just turn up because we genuinely got on. We shared similar backgrounds, we shared similar musical taste; and we shared the similar belief and idea of when we find something we love, we wanna share it.
And that’s what Steve’s love of poetry was - it’s like it reignited him and his writing generally.
I loved that guy."
I am in the process of uploading some of Steve's poems. Click to see him reading this one here.