The Peak Area activist and Sheffield climber Julian Materna died last Saturday after a long battle with cancer. As an access rep with his wife Trudi, who also served as secretary of the Peak Area, Julian put a huge amount of effort and time into Peak District climbing. Despite his illness, he continued to climb and bike near his home and in France, which he loved.

In the mid 2000s, Julian worked on a series of conservation issues, with a particular effort at Stanage and other crags on the eastern moors. He organised maintenance work around the Stanage Plantation boulders, cleared vegetation at Horseshoe and helped clean up the Roaches.

When he met Trudi Newman in 1993, they were both more into rock bands and pubs. “He was a long-haired hippie and I was a big haired glam-rock chick. Outdoor pursuits were not on our radar.” Years later, a friend came nagging them to try climbing and once they finally agreed they were hooked.

Julian particularly loved bouldering at Fontainebleau as well as walking in the Alps, where he also indulged his passion for cycling. Although he started work at British Steel in the late 1980s as a computer programmer, and followed the organisation through its various incarnations, he lived for the weekends and his passion for the outdoors.

In October 2007, he went to the doctor with a sore shoulder and when physiotherapy didn’t help, discovered he had bone cancer. In July 2008 he had a left forequarter amputation, which removed his arm, shoulder blade and collarbone, and he figured his climbing and cycling days were over.

Yet as he recovered from the surgery, he discovered other amputees who had gone back to climbing, and with help from Trudi and support from Phil Robbins at the Edge in Sheffield was able to begin climbing again, doing routes at Wharncliffe and learning how to belay Trudi safely one-handed.

Julian also managed to get back on his bike with a few tweaks and some help from the NHS. “Ultimately he was a better off-road rider than ever,” Trudi said, “and far braver and more skilful than me. He fell off a lot but he learned how to do that without injuring himself too much.”

Julian and Trudi married in May 2009, but in June last year, after three years’ remission, a routine check-up showed his cancer was back, this time in his right lung. After more surgery and chemo, Julian was just beginning to recover when more cancer was discovered and this time there would be no escape.

Julian wrote a moving blog on his experiences as a cancer patient, as he faced up to the indignities and challenges of the disease with great courage and dignity.

Julian’s funeral is at Wisewood Woodland Cemetery in Sheffield on Friday 29 June at 2.45pm and then afterwards at The Plough Inn at Low Bradfield. The family has requested family flowers only with donations in lieu to Edale Mountain Rescue Team either by cheque to Stannington Funeral Services, 98 Oldfield Road, Stannington, Sheffield or via a Justgiving page set up in his memory.

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