A PENKETH man is raising awareness of an ‘unknown’ condition that claimed his son’s life at the age of 46.

Builder Darren Barber was a keen cyclist who would often tackle 100-mile rides, but died months after he was diagnosed with scleroderma – a disease whose cause are as yet unknown.

While one in 10,000 are diagnosed with the condition only one in a million suffer from the most severe form like Darren, who was diagnosed after he experienced severe hallucinations during a spell in hospital in August 2013.

The Penrose Gardens resident died in the early hours of July 18 2014 due to multiple organ failure and chronic renal failure as a result of scleroderma, leaving behind a 13-year-old son.

Darren’s mum, dad and partner arrived at Aintree University Hospital just in time to say goodbye.

Dad Sidney said: “It’s such a devious, awful thing – it affects your facial features because the skin tightens but the worst part of it is that it affects every organ in your body, and eventually they won’t be able to work anymore.

“The biggest thing about scleroderma is that they don’t know where it comes from and there’s no actual treatment.

“They tried all sorts for him but nothing was working and we could see that, and he knew that – the doctors were clutching at straws because it’s a fight you can’t win.”

Hundreds of people attended the popular 46-year-old’s funeral.

Sidney added: “In the last four months he went downhill very quickly and he couldn’t get out of bed.

“He handled it well – probably better than I think I could have done – and in the end I think he had had enough.

“His funeral was attended by approximately 200 people – we always knew he was well-liked but we realised from talking to his friends how much he was appreciated.”