A retired British teacher built an entire mini golf course on the roof of his home in Gozo so that he could help fund cancer treatment for one of his former students.

After teaching mathematics in a school in London for 35 years, Peter Thomas permanently retired with his wife in Gozo six years ago.

But when he heard that one of his young students back in the UK was battling a severe form of cancer, he needed to find a way to help her from Gozo.

Peter, 74, is also a musician and choir director while his wife, Linda, owned a theatre dance school in London.

Peter Thomas

Together they produced 53 musicals in London, including West Side Story, Grease, My Fair Lady and many other hits. In Gozo, they had none of that but Peter would soon get an idea.

A few months before, he had gathered a group of singers and set up a community choir. The singers would perform for fun in squares, during local events and in old people’s homes and would take donations from passers-by.

Then, on one occasion, while on a visit to the parish church in Xewkija, Peter was struck by the beauty of the organ inside the Rotunda.

He befriended the parish priest, who would let him practise on the instrument and he would play as tourists toured the church.

Seeing that people were loving the free organ music, Peter thought he could make some more money to help his former student, so he got permission to hold a concert with the choir in the church... and it worked.

One fundraising event led to another and all was going well until the virus pandemic hit and all his musical ventures were shut down.

“We were stuck at home and, one morning, I was playing with sticks on the breakfast table. I saw the Xewkija windmill and started to build a model of it,” he recalled.

“As I built it, it started to dawn on me that this could become a mini obstacle golf course and it could actually attract people and funds.”

Mini golf courses are popular in the UK. The sport is derived from regular golf but is played on a much smaller surface area and usually challenges contestants to putt golf balls through an obstacle course of tunnels, bridges, windmills and ramps.

Peter soon set out to transform his roof into a mini golf course.

He spent months building miniature models of Ta’ Pinu sanctuary, Villa Rundle Gardens, the Xewkija church, the Azure Window, Mġarr ix-Xini, the Citadel and Ġgantija, among others.

As soon as COVID-19 restrictions were lifted, Peter would invite people to his home to play mini golf and his wife would prepare food for everyone against a donation.

As friends navigated golf balls around miniatures of Gozo’s iconic landmarks, the couple continued to raise funds for Peter’s former student.

The concerts and the mini golf raised enough money for Peter to be able to help fund the cancer treatment of his former student.

“She survived. The cancer has cleared and she is doing very well now. She just turned 30,” Peter told Times of Malta with a huge smile on his face.

“She is now a trained teacher and works with children with vision and hearing impairments. She visited the golf course in Gozo herself recently and was incredibly grateful for the support she received from hundreds of people who donated to her treatment without even knowing who she was.”

Peter and Linda are now happily spending their days in Gozo.

“The people here are lovely and we make friends easily,” they contended.

Peter is also a member of the Rotary Club of Gozo and it was people like him who inspired club president Thomas Welch to organise the first-ever The Pride of Gozo Awards.

The club is asking people to nominate any Gozo resident who, in their view, is going out of their way to help the community. The nominees could be Gozitan people or foreigners living in Gozo.

Nominations can be sent by e-mail to secretary@rotarygozo.org with the name and not more than 200 words describing why the person deserves to receive an award.

Nominations close on December 16 and the final awards ceremony will be held early next year.

The awards are being sponsored by the ministry for Gozo in association with Times of Malta.

The Rotary Club of Gozo is one of the smallest of the 15,000 rotary clubs in over 145 countries. Their members perform duties of service and raise funds for their communities.

During the virus pandemic, the Gozo club was alerted to several Gozitan families that were struggling to make ends meet and provided clothing, heaters and duvets along with Christmas gifts to various children and their parents.

At present, the club is also supporting Il-Kantuniera – a mental health facility – which is the brainchild of former president Marie-Louise Coleiro Preca and will serve as a half-way house for patients who have been discharged from hospital as they prepare for life back in the community.

The club’s next project is sponsoring a trainee teacher in The Gambia.