Tebay man's fitting tribute to his bus driver wife Mags

Paul Turnbull, from Tebay, lost his wife Margaret – “Mags” – to cancer in 2019 and decided to commemorate her life by transforming an unloved bus shelter in the village.

The 61-year-old drove the 106 bus from Penrith to Kendal, and later the school bus from Tebay to Sedbergh, and began each school run from the bus shelter in Mount Pleasant.

“Everybody in the village knew her, she was very very popular,” said Mr Turnbull.

“She loved it – she always said it was like taking her friends out for a drive.”

Mr Turnbull sought agreement from Tebay Parish Council before he gave the shelter a vibrant lick of purple paint – his wife’s favourite colour – and hung-up pictures and a plaque to remember Mrs Turnbull.

“It’s a stone's throw from where we used to live and I just thought she had to be remembered in some way,” said Mr Turnbull.

“And I thought there’s that bus shelter that’s looking a bit drab and unloved and she used to run the bus from there on the school run.

“It’s been painted inside and out, hanging baskets put up, I made a wooden frame with a plaque in it and there’s a lot of pictures of her inside of it.”

The tribute has been well received by the Tebay community since its completion in September last year.

“I’ve had a lot of people say what a nice idea it was and how lovely it looks,” said Mr Turnbull.

“She loved Tebay, the people as well, and they loved her.”

Mr Turnbull will also be taking part in the Great North Run in September to raise money for Macmillan Cancer Support, who supported the couple in 2019.

He added: “If anyone would like to do anything in her memory I’m always doing anything I can for Macmillan, because they helped us enormously.”