THE last time they were all together was 20 years ago.

Now staff from Bicester’s first industrial firm are gathering to say a poignant goodbye to a fellow worker.

Staff of Bruce Engineering, Bessemer Close, Bicester, were all made redundant in 1991 and went their separate ways.

Now a core group has got together to organise a reunion on October 22 after one of their ranks was told he had terminal cancer.

Steve Blake, 57, has defied doctors’ predictions after he was given six months to live last October after his cancer, which started in his bowel, spread.

He has used the past few months to get his affairs in order and do some of things he had always wanted to do.

One of these is meeting up with his former colleagues at Bruce Engineering, where he worked for 21 years from 1970, starting as an apprentice tool maker.

Mr Blake, of Barratts Row, Wendlebury, near Bicester, said: “When I sat down with the consultant I said ‘how long have I got?’ He said six months, I coughed, he said I might go 12.

“I have been pretty receptive to chemotherapy and it gives me an opportunity to do things and put things in place for my family.”

He said the social evening would be a chance to say goodbye to ex-colleagues of the firm that left a major impression on him.

Mr Blake said: “We have been looking for a reason to meet. It will be a chance for people to meet who haven’t seen each other for years.

“One thing you can say about Bruce is it was a family environment and not many people left.

“It was a cracking place to work and there’s a lot of people who have got good memories from it. I’ve got to roll up on October 22.”

Steve is married to Maggie and has two children, Andrew and Kirsty Davis, and one-year-old grandson Kaiden Davis.

After leaving Bruce Engineering, he worked for other car component firms in Oxfordshire, including Unipart and Toyota.

Former quality manager Dave Powell, 68, of Bernwood Road, Bicester, started at the firm in 1959 and worked there on and off for almost 30 years.

He said: “We have a special reason for holding the reunion and hopefully it will go on from there.

“It will be the first time everyone has got together since the leaving party in 1991.”

Tickets are £5 and will be go into a draw. Money raised will go to Cancer Research UK.

The reunion will be at the Ex-Services Club, Sheep Street, at 7.45pm.

For details, call Mr Powell on 01869 601373 or Mr Blake on 01869 320139.