A CONSTANT battle against diabetes, onset of blindness and lung surgery has failed to to deter a well-loved actor from honouring the age-old maxim that 'the show must go on!'

And 50 years devotion by 66-year-old Thomas Leigh to the amateur stage, and to the St Helens Catholic Gilbert and Sullivan Society in particular, has been recognised with the award of the gold medal of the National Operatic and Dramatic Society.

Popularly known as Tommy, Mr Leigh received his silver medal in 1971, but lost it in a fire at his home in Windlehurst Avenue several years ago, so his latest gong is doubly welcome. It was presented at an informal ceremony at Lowe House Social Club when fellow society members regaled Tommy with the best of William Schwenk Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan.

A father and grandfather of three, Tommy's love affair with music and the stage began during the war when he was evacuated to North Wales, and blossomed in the minstrel shows at Lowe House, where his father Joe was choirmaster.

He joined the local G & S Society in 1946, first as a member of the chorus. Blessed with a fine bass voice he then enjoyed several leading roles and also produced several operettas, and in all has trod the boards in more than 300 performances.

'The Yeoman of the Guard' and 'Patience' rank among Tommy's' favourites with the immortal lines from the latter "would that I was a little less beautiful, but candour compells me to admit that I am not" a clue to Mr Leigh's infectious sense of humour. Diagnosed diabetic in 1957, losing part of a lung and registered blind as a consequence of retinopathy, Thomas Ignatius Leigh still retains a sparkling pair of eyes to the world at large, and is ever-ready to ad-lib with anyone.

His proud boast that he has notched up 50,000 injections of insulin and 15,000 laser shots to his eyes is another pointer to a philosophical approach to afflictions that would cause a lesser man to despair.

"I had a good grounding at Bold Colliery with NUM leader Joe Gormley who, to paraphrase Gilbert and Sullivan, told me I was too much a little Conservative to be a good trade unionist.

" I also picked up a few wrinkles as a switchboard operator at the Providence Hospital. It was a laugh a minute at the Prov with the likes of legendary Sister Kathleen Duffy, and it came as a great sadness to me when the hospital closed its doors to the grateful folk of St Helens," says Tommy.

Nowadays Mr Leigh keeps in touch with his beloved Gilbert and Sullivan Society through its elder statesmen Jim Culley and Gerry Henebery, and is currently kept busy selling tickets for their forthcoming production of 'Ruddygore.'

He also keeps in touch with the Star's coverage of local affairs through the tapes sent to him by the Sutton Sentinel 'talking' newspaper.

Proof positive that Tommy Leigh is inclined to treat life as one big comic opera might be found as he gently stroked his snow-white pet cat - who else could have christened it 'Blackie'?

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