Freemason Owen Kirk, a 27-year-old member of Morecambe Lodge No 1561 is a professional super middleweight boxer who most days is either at the gym or clocking on at Heysham Power Station. He has spent most of his life with Coastal Amateur Boxing Club and has been trained since he was 11 by his coach, Bob Howard. In late July 2026, Owen together with 16 mates, boxers from the club and work colleagues from the power station challenged themselves to climb Yorkshire’s Three Peaks in just a single day, and not just to admire the scenery!
The reason they took on the challenge was to raise funds for Rosemere Cancer Cantre at Royal Preston Hospital. Owen’s mum, Andrea, from Heysham was diagnosed with cancer earlier in 2026, and since then she’s been in their care working through chemotherapy and 28 rounds of radiotherapy. Anyone who has sat in a hospital car park while someone they love goes through treatment knows the particular gratitude that builds up towards the people doing the caring. Owen decided to turn that gratitude into something he could actually do something about, and for a boxer, that meant a physical challenge worth the name.
Working through the type of tiredness you can’t shake off with a cup of coffee, and gets into your knees on the descent from Ingleborough, 12 hours and 24 miles after you started, with Pen-y-ghent and Whernside already behind you and the light starting to think about fading, Owen said: “This challenge was my way of saying thank you to everyone at Rosemere for keeping my mum in the very best hands.”
By the time the last of the 16 had staggered off Ingleborough, the fundraising page was already climbing past four figures. As it stands, Owen has raised £4,215 for Rosemere, with Gift Aid pushing the true value further still, and he’s chosen to keep the page open a little longer. There’s a tradition at the end of cancer treatment where patients ring a bell to mark the finish line, and Andrea’s had a small delay getting there after picking up an infection along the way. Owen’s waiting for that phone call before he closes the page for good, which tells you most of what you need to know about him.
Freemasonry doesn’t get you up a mountain, and it certainly doesn’t throw a punch for you, but it does ask its members to think seriously about integrity, friendship, respect and service, not as words on a certificate but as things you actually do when it matters. Turning a family’s hardest year into 24 miles of Yorkshire limestone for a cause that helped his mum is exactly that kind of doing. It’s the same instinct that sees Freemasons’ halls across West Lancashire opened up as wedding venues, funeral wakes, veterans’ hubs and community spaces, and the same one that saw Province members put in over 56,000 hours of voluntary service last year alone, and raise more than £750,000 for Freemasons and non-Freemason causes together.
Owen’s climb is one man’s version of a habit an awful lot of Freemasons share: when someone you care about is looked after, you find a way to look after others in return. Owen’s next pro fight is at Lancaster in November, and if his training runs anything like his fundraising, Rosemere and everyone backing him will have plenty to shout about. Until then, his JustGiving page stays open, waiting on one phone call from his mum and a bell with her name on it. You can support Owen’s fundraiser for Rosemere Cancer Centre by clicking here.