Steve Michael President of the Greek Orthodox Community in Middlesborough sadly passes away

Steve Michael sadly passed away Thursday7th May 2020 at the age of 86 and leaves behind his wife Charoulla and son and daughters Christopher,Panayiota and Pantelitsa, five grandchildren and two sisters Eleni and Loukia who live in the USA.

Steve Michael was born in 1933 in the village of Pera Chorio in Cyprus the son of Michalis and Panayiotou Matzikos and his siblings were Irini, Andy, Eleni and Loukia.His father was a policeman and they moved to the village of Skyllouras. In Cyprus Steve worked as a barber and was a musician and part of a band that played at weddings.

Steve came to the UK in 1960 and lived in London where he worked as a barber and moved to Liverpool in 1964 where he met and married Haroulla from Lythrodonda. There he worked as a barber and helped in his wife’s family fish and chip shop. Then a koumbaro of his Spyros a fish and chip shop owner in Newcastle suggested to him that there is a fish and chip shop for sale in Middlesborough for sale so Steve and family decided to take it on and move there.

It was there where he bought three different fish and chip shops till 1979 he stayed put with the Golden Mermaid fish and Chip shop with a Greek restaurant next door.His  family still run the business..

He was chair of the local Middlesborough and Stockton Greek Orthodox community for over 30 years and was also a church chanter.

He helped organise many “wonderful” Greek- themed charity events over the years, with Greek cuisine and bands at venues such as the former Marton Country Club.

“It’s just one of his many contributions to the community and he took great pride in it,” Yiota added.And he still loved cutting peoples hair.

Steve was diagnosed with Motor Neurone Disease in 2017.

Parikiaki Newspaper extend their condolences to the family.

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