May 14, 2026 - 242 views
The courage of late music icon Mike Peters has inspired a café owner who’s overcome his own cancer battle to launch a charity fundraising campaign.
Barry Brennand, 78, says he’s delighted to be back behind the counter at the Whistlestop café on a small industrial estate near Rhuddlan where the much-loved rocker was a regular customer.
The eatery that’s famous for its generously-portioned all-day breakfasts was also a favourite of Colwyn Bay’s The Vivienne, winner of the first series of RuPaul’s Drag Race UK in 2019, who sadly also died last year.
Other celebrity fans include TV weather presenter Ruth Dodsworth, Coronation Street actor Bruce Jones and former Wales football manager Mike England.
After being given just a 20 per cent survival chance when he was diagnosed with oesophageal cancer, great-grandfather Barry is now cancer-free and launching a fundraiser for Cancer Research – with long-time supplier Harlech Foodservice playing a prominent role in the campaign.
The Cricieth-based family firm has supported him for 37 years, first supplying The Palace Café in Rhyl before continuing their partnership when he opened the Whistlestop at HTM Business Park in 1993.
Both Barry and Harlech Foodservice business development manager Brittany Loughborough are urging the cafe’s customers to donate to a Cancer Research collection bucket at the venue.
Harlech is also providing Barry with what he needs for a fundraising party and barbecue at his home to celebrate his successful cancer fight.
According to Barry, his fundraising campaign was also a way of honouring the bravery of the Alarm frontman who sadly passed away last year after battling blood cancer 30 years.
Barry said: “I feel very lucky to be here now to be honest, when they were telling me there was a 20 per cent survival rate.
“They operated in November and I have had 240 hours of chemotherapy and I am now all-clear.
“My message to anybody is do not put it to one side, if you have a problem, go and get it sorted, don’t be macho - that doesn’t pay.”
Barry, from Towyn, was delighted to be back in his beloved cafe and seeing his regular customers and friends.
He also gave special praise to manageress Gill Wynne and the team of 16 part-time staff who kept the café going while he was battling cancer.
He said: “Gill is the best of the best, she has been with us for 20 years. I am lucky, I have got some of the best staff you will ever come across.
“It is a very special cafe and we have customers who come here now who have been coming here since we first opened.
“And I have been with Harlech Foodservice since forever. They look after us, they never muck us about and they give us the right prices.”
Brittany Loughborough was thrilled to see Barry healthy and well and back at the business.
She said: “I was a customer at the café before I started working with Harlech and the Whistlestop is such an iconic place. That is all down to Barry and his brilliant staff.
“Barry is so supportive to the local community and local businesses and it is wonderful to see him so fit and well.
“He is so positive and now he is giving back through his fundraising.”
A major part of the café’s success is its huge popularity within the biking community.
The café has its own motorcycle club, the Whistlestop MCC which started about 25 years ago when friends asked Barry if they and their fellow biking enthusiasts could meet there before ride-outs and the club now has 1,500 members on its books.
Barry said: “When it is sunny and warm you will probably have about 100 members turn up.
“I remember one year there was a £1 million worth of bikes parked up outside.
Barry first got to know Mike Peters well when the singer was recording the In The Poppy Fields album with The Alarm in 2004 at a studio at HTM Business Park.
The singer and his recording team came into the cafe regularly – and the café even name-checked on the back of the album.
Barry said: “Mike used to come in with his wife Jules and they’d have their dinners and he was just a lovely, lovely lad. They’d all come in, Mike, the technicians, the sound engineers. They were lovely, absolutely spot-on guys.
“We looked after them, if they needed coffees or teas or whatever we would take them down to the studio, or they would come up here when they needed a break.
“On the back of the album, Mike says he wishes to thank The Whistlestop, which was great.
“Mike and Jules would also pop in on a regular basis afterwards, years after they had done the album. All I can say is that he was my mate.
“I just think as an individual you can take a leaf out of Mike’s book, and it is also about how you react.
“Mike was just a lovely guy, people might not know, but he was massive in America, but he was always very humble."
Barry and his wife Dorothy have seven children, 26 grandchildren and six great-grandchildren, and he said the support from family and friends and the cafe’s customers during his cancer battle has been immense.
He said: “The response from the customers has been wonderful, I have had cuddles, kisses, prayers, everything.
“We’re going to have a house party to thank everyone that has helped me and I’ll be taking the Cancer Research bucket to that for donations.
“And I can’t thank the hospital staff enough - they were amazing.”
The Whistlestop Cafe is one of many long-standing customers for Harlech Foodservice which employs 300 staff and supplies pubs, restaurants, schools and hospitals across Wales, the North West, Shropshire and the Midlands.
The business has enjoyed rapid expansion in recent years and has added new hubs in Carmarthen, Caerphilly and Telford to its long-established centres in Cricieth and Chester.
