A ‘humble’ and ‘generous’ father-of-seven who had the honour of meeting Ghandi and Pope Francis has donated money in his will to a charity he supported for over 70 years.

Patrick Fleming, 94, from Burnley, who died on January 11, was known fondly remembered by thousands of Burnley residents as a window cleaner.

Patrick left £2,000 in his will to the St Vincent de Paul Society (SVP) for which he volunteered since he was a teenager.

Throughout his long life, Patrick had the rare distinction to have met both Mahatma Gandhi during his visit to Lancashire cotton mills in 1931, and Pope Francis during a Mass at the Vatican in 2019 when he talked with the pontiff.

His son Bernard Fleming said: “To the residents of Burnley, Patrick might have seemed like an ordinary, humble working man. In a sense, it was true. He was humble, and he was definitely a working man, but he was not ordinary.

“He even completed his O-Level maths not long before he retired, just because he could. He was also a lifelong fan of Burnley Football Club and was a regular at Turf Moor.

“He was a wonderful, generous, kind man.”

A devout Catholic, Patrick joined the SVP in his teens and tirelessly helped his community at every opportunity, delivering food parcels to the foodbank, furniture to those who were in need of it, or even giving an oven to a family who had no way of cooking.

He changed the lives of hundreds of people in his community through simple acts of kindness over seven decades.

Patrick and his family would forgo Christmas presents to give food to the foodbank and whenever he wasn’t at work, he would visit people suffering illness in their home or in hospital.

After leaving school at 14, Patrick began his working life as a miner, before he became a window cleaner.

He finally retired from window cleaning aged 74 after selling his round three times, only to return on each occasion due to his popularity with his customers.

SVP president Helen O’Shea added: “A lasting legacy is created among the living, not merely on a gravestone. We are leaving a legacy every day of our lives.

“Our actions live on after we pass, so Patrick’s inspirational life of giving should be a lesson to us all."

“We are incredibly grateful to Patrick for his gift in his will, which will allow his SVP group at St John the Baptist to continue his selfless work in his beloved community in Burnley.”

Patrick was a much loved husband of the late Eileen, father of Bernard, Francis, Maureen, Catherine, Margaret, Elizabeth and Jane and a dear grandad and great grandad.