FAMILY and friends of an ‘outgoing, friendly and loving’ man will pound the pavements today, Sunday with a walk to raise money in his memory.

Stephen ‘Stiggy’ Rustage died on August 10 last year and to mark the anniversary of his death his parents Penny and Les, brother Gareth, sister Sarah and their families and a group of his friends will walk from his house in Reynolds Street to Fox Covert, where he was laid to rest.

Stiggy, given the nickname as a baby because ‘the house was always a dump so he was the stig’, was only 25 when he died – just four days before he was due to see a leading heart specialist.

He had pulmonary atresia, a rare birth defect that means he had no pulmonary artery.

Stiggy’s only chance was a heart and lung transplant, but he died before he could get one.

“He had trouble walking with his condition so we thought it would be apt to walk for him,” said sister Sarah, of Seabury Street, Westy.

The family want to raise money for Alder Hey Children’s Hospital in Liverpool, which is where Stiggy was treated throughout his childhood.

But it has a second significance to them, as Sarah’s two-year-old son Joel also has a heart disorder – known as tetralogy of Fallot – and has had open heart surgery twice at Alder Hey.

By coincidence, both Stiggy and Joel were treated by the same consultant.

“He was always there for Joel. It gave them a special bond,” said mum Penny.

Stiggy, a former Alderman Bolton Primary School and Sir Thomas Boteler High School pupil, was two when doctors discovered his condition after he collapsed following a measles injection.

Dad Les said: “He never moaned about his illness, he was never poorly in himself.

“He would never let it get to him – he would try to do everything.”

Penny said: “He was doing brilliantly and was really coping with it but then about three weeks before he died he had six mini strokes.”

Stiggy had a blood clot in his heart and died in hospital.

Penny said her son was outgoing, friendly and worshipped his dad.

A regular at the Crown and Cushion’s weekly karaoke, the Penketh pub put on a tribute night to Stiggy after his death.

“Everyone you speak to says he was a lovely lad,” said Les.

The family had another son, Lee, who died 23 years ago of a heart condition, though doctors say they were unrelated.

Sunday’s two-and-a-half-mile walk, organised by Stiggy’s friends Adam Milford and Candice Evans, will start at 4pm on Reynolds Street and the family want anyone willing to take part to join them.

“We want to raise whatever we can, whatever anyone can afford to give,” said Penny.

“If it saves another person, another child, then that’s worth everything.”