A car meet will be held in Aberdeen on Saturday night in memory of a 31-year-old man who lost his three-year battle with cancer in June.
Dale Allen, who would have turned 32 on November 30, was diagnosed with stage four glioblastoma in 2020, after a visit to the opticians found something that “didn’t look right” behind his eye.
The optician immediately asked the Dyce resident to go into hospital and this is where MRI and CT head scans found a tumour inside the brain of the then 28-year-old.
During his life, Dale was a self-confessed “engine fanatic” and his fianceé Gemma Scott, 26, told The P&J that “he would try and take things apart, just to see how they worked”.
She started speaking to her future fiancé back in 2017 when the pair started messaging on Snapchat.
“He had messaged me after work, ‘what you doing, would you manage to meet up?’ and ever since then it’s history,” Gemma said.
They got engaged on Christmas Eve in 2019, before Dale was struck down by cancer.
Gemma became his full-time carer during his courageous battle, which saw him pass away at the age of 31 in June, and described him as “our soldier” who “had a heart of gold”.
She added: “No matter how bad the outcome was, Dale always had high spirits of having a good outcome, no matter what.
‘Dale helped me with a lot of things in my life’
“Dale always made me laugh, no matter what he said or did, he was just that kind of person.
“He said to me that I was his rock and soulmate, but it was the other way around, he helped me with a lot of things in my life.”
As well as a fiancé, Dale was a brother to Kylie, Daz and Deon and leaves behind two children from a previous relationship, 11-year-old Zack and Carmel, who is 10.
Describing them as “amazing and beautiful”, she added: “Zack’s took on the love of cars from Dale and Carmel was Dale’s little precious girl.”
In 2018, the couple went on their first trip to the North Coast 500 and went every year, however, this year’s trip did not happen due to the passing of the 31-year-old.
During the car meet, which takes place from 7pm on Saturday at Kingswells Park and Ride, Gemma will be raising funds for Friends of the Neuro Ward, who helped care for her fiancé during his cancer battle.
‘Going to be a really great night’
Dale was a big fan of car meets and his fiancée says that he “loved going to any, anywhere where he could find one happening”.
Gemma is hoping that a “few hundred” will turn out to the event, which will also see the launch of biodegradable Chinese lanterns, in which people can put in messages to remember him.
She added: “If there’s not this amount, it’s still going to be a really great night, even if it’s just about 50.”
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