YORK Minster is not the obvious place of pilgrimage for a man keen to honour the 96 Liverpool fans who lost their lives in the Hillsborough disaster of 1989.

Anfield, perhaps. Or one of Liverpool's two cathedrals. But York Minster?

Steve Kelly has his reasons.

On Sunday April 16, 1989, the 67-year-old Everton fan, from Old Swan, Liverpool, had to drive to Sheffield to identify the body of his 38-year-old brother Michael - a Liverpool fan who had died in the disaster.

Steve became a key member of the Hillsborough Justice Campaign.

Every year since, that anniversary has been tough for him. He has joined in countless official memorial ceremonies. But in more recent years, he's been trying to find his own way to mark the date.

Last year, on the 40th anniversary of the disaster, the keen cyclist and runner did the Way of the Roses bike ride from Bridlington to Morecambe in anniversary week - although he missed out the York to Ripon section.

That has bugged him ever since, he admits. He planned to do the ride in the reverse direction this year - taking in the Ripon to York section this time, and aiming to light a candle in the Minster on April 15.

Coronavirus and lockdown put paid to all that - although not before York's Paul Willey, a keen Liverpool fan who was at Hillsborough himself in 1989, had heard of Steve's plight and offered to light the candle for him.

With lockdown over, however, Steve is determined to do the ride from Ripon to York - the part of the Way of the Roses ride he missed out last year - and light a candle in honour of his brother and all the other Hillsborough victims in both cathedrals.

Very special candles they will be, too, he says. He's had two of them made, in red and blue to signify how the red and blue sides of Liverpool united in response to the tragedy.

He'll be setting off from Ripon on his bike at about 10am on Tuesday - and hopes to reach York Minster at about 1pm.

And he'll be met there by Paul. "We'll light the candle together," Steve said. "I can't wait to meet him!"