A cancer survivor of eight years made 50 donations last month to celebrate both his 50th birthday and a near decade of cancer-free health.

Nigel Richardson, from Pembroke, said that he felt “blessed” to celebrate his golden anniversary on August 3.

He added that his two-year battle with prostate cancer that ended in surgery in 2011 helped to put his situation into perspective.

Mr Richardson explained: “To make it to 50 is a big deal because a lot of people don’t make it to 50.

“So I made it to 50, it would be coming up on ten years as a survivor and I think I’ve been pretty blessed in my life, so I thought, ‘How can I bless somebody else in that same aspect?’”

Mr Richardson, a police constable and former photographer at The Royal Gazette, said that he first got the idea when his wife took him to Las Vegas in July to celebrate his birthday.

He explained that, instead of spending his good fortune at a casino, he decided to “pay it forward” to those in need.

Mr Richardson said: “They have a lot of homeless people and people that are down and out, so we would go get stuff from a CVS and hand out little care packages.”

He added that the idea soon evolved into performing 50 good deeds, which included acts such as paying for the food of other restaurant diners.

Mr Richardson also said: “We look at it as things that we take for granted, but for somebody else that might have been their life-saver for the day.

“So it wasn’t like I was spending a million dollars, but it was just small little things that added up.”

Mr Richardson said that for his final act of kindness he decided to donate school supplies to a friend, Tenel Spence, who taught P3 at West Pembroke Primary School.

He explained that Ms Spence admitted that she was in the process of organising her classroom and had set out to buy at least 15 different items.

But instead, Mr Richardson chose to donate $450 worth of books, pencils, games and other donations to provide for the pupils and complete his list.

Mr Richardson said: “I went to West Pembroke, so I know what it’s like to have been in the public school system.

“There are people who just can’t afford these supplies, whether it be a pen, pencil, ruler, marker, whatever.

“I just wanted to make sure that, no matter if the parent could afford it or couldn’t afford it, that the whole class would’ve been covered with whatever I managed to get.”

Mr Richardson said that his project well received when he shared photos of his classroom donation. Because of this, he said that he might do a similar project for his 55th or 60th birthday. Mr Richardson said: “It’ll definitely get done again.

“Maybe not next year, but it’ll definitely get done again.”