THE FAVOURITE landlady of a bricklayer who died this week following a 15ft fall told today how she had watched him grow up.

John O'Keefe, who would have been 30 today, died in hospital on Wednesday after falling over railings outside his Holcombe Road home in Helmshore on Sunday.

He was taken to Bury General Hospital before being transferred to Salford's Hope Hospital where he died.

A popular lad around town, John was a regular at the Roebuck Inn, in Haslingden, and landlady Pat Dewhurst said she treated him like "one of her own."

"I have been here 17 years and John has been coming in a long time," said Pat, who has four grown up children of her own. "I have watched him grow up and he used to call me 'mother' or 'Auntie Pat'.

"He was a lovely lad and I just can't believe it has happened. It's hard to think that John won't be coming through that door again."

John's's parents, Brian and Mary O'Keefe of Rock Street, Haslingden, were too distressed to speak today.

His partner Jill Broadgate, who he lived with was said to have gone back to her parents.

On Wednesday Pat gave free drinks to the crowd of John's friends following his shock death.