In loving memory of Steve Shotter
- HBA Support
- Jul 8
- 3 min read
Updated: Jul 21
For Luke Shotter and his family, 21 May 2024 is a day they will never forget. His dad, Steve, had travelled to Brixham with Luke’s mum for a short break to celebrate her birthday. It was a favourite place full of childhood memories. Luke and his wife were due to join them later that week. But on Tuesday afternoon, the phone rang. "I just knew it was serious,” Luke says.
Steve, a fit, active man in good health, worked as a painter and decorator and was the kind of person who never sat still. He was a dad of 5 and Grandad to 7 grandchildren.
“He was a doer,” Luke says. “He always had a project on the go. Always helping someone. Always throwing a party or organising something. Rain or shine, we barbequed."
He was also a West Ham season ticket holder, a dedicated fisherman, and a proud dad of five. “He took us to Brixham every year when we were kids. That place meant the world to him. He always said he’d retire there.”
But on 21 May, Steve suffered a catastrophic brain aneurysm rupture while on holiday. The staff acted immediately and an ambulance was called straight away, and Devon Air Ambulance flew Steve to Derriford Hospital in Plymouth.
By the time Luke and his siblings arrived, doctors explained that Steve was too unstable for surgery. But the next morning, he was taken into theatre for a five-hour operation. The bleed was stemmed and a coil inserted, although some of the blood had already begun to clot, meaning a full repair wasn’t possible. From that moment on, it became a waiting game.
Incredibly, over the next week, Steve began to show signs of recovery. “When he was brought round from the induced coma, he could mouth words. He recognised us. He knew what had happened. It was amazing to have those moments.”
Unfortunately that night, Steve became unresponsive again and was placed back into an induced coma. Tests showed he’d suffered further strokes, and that the damage was likely to the frontal lobe. “They said if he came out of it, he wouldn’t be the same person,” Luke says.
By Saturday 1 June, the swelling in Steve’s brain had increased so much that no oxygen was reaching key areas. That afternoon, he was declared clinically brain dead.“He was just 61. Still working. Still living life. It’s so hard to accept.”
Steve’s organs were donated, a final act of kindness from a warm, welcoming man who loved his family, his football, and the sea. Steve left behind a huge gap in the lives of everyone who knew him.
In the weeks after his death, the Shotter family were overwhelmed: planning a funeral, returning to work, helping one another cope. “Mum got a letter from the GP saying she might be entitled to some bereavement counselling and we had been told some information about aneurysms and why it happened by the amazing nurses at the hospital, but I wanted to understand more.”
Luke began researching. “That’s when I realised how little is known. People confuse brain aneurysms with tumours. There’s barely any information.”
Luke eventually found HBA Support. “It was the first time I read something and felt seen. Like someone actually understood what we were going through, and when I spoke to Rebecca, and heard her inspiring story, I also realised that – with the right information – at the right time – there is hope. That’s when I decided I had to do something.”
Luke and his siblings are now fundraising in Steve’s memory — 12 challenges in 12 months to raise awareness, support research, and help others who are lost in the aftermath of a sudden rupture.
In December 2025, Luke will complete a marathon dressed as Santa, finishing at the gates of West Ham Stadium in honour of the team he and his dad supported side by side.
More than anything, Luke wants families to have the knowledge his didn’t. “If I can help one person get seen earlier, ask better questions, or understand what this is — it’ll be worth it. My dad was everything to us. This is the least we can do.”
Many thanks to Luke for sharing Steve's story with us.
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