A MOURNING family turned down gifts of flowers from well-wishers to raise money for charity, after father-of-three Kanu Patel died of a heart attack.

The 46-year-old from Ashton, Preston, suffered a string of heart problems and underwent complex surgery last March, from which he pulled through, despite doctors giving the operation a 50 per cent chance of failure. But an attack earlier this year proved too much and Kanu died in January.

Wife Kausalya, and children Nita, Vinay and Bhavesh who are in their late teens and early 20s, asked family and friends to donate money to the charity Heartbeat instead of buying the usual flowers. The thoughtful plea raised more than £300.

Kausalya said: "We wanted to do something useful to try to stop other families going through the same thing."

She was sitting next to Kanu at home when he suffered his fatal attack. Kausalya said: "It was so sudden. I panicked and a neighbour gave him mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, but it was no good. It was such a shock because since his operation, everything seemed fine." She paid tribute to her husband who, she says, was 'one in a million.' She said: "I still miss him terribly. He was a very kind man who wouldn't do or say anything to hurt anybody.

"Kanu always tried to help others and was well-liked. He used to work at BNFL at Springfields and was always giving people lifts. He cared for me very much and did everything for me."

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.