A BURNLEY businessman has died while on holiday in Benidorm after suffering a heart attack.

Former cigarette vending operator Mick Hawthornthwaite, 48, of Bankside, Westhoughton, was with his second wife, Wynn when he was taken ill and died last Friday.

Mick, son of the late Victor and Cath Hawthornthwaite, also leaves behind one brother, John, and three children, Emma, 17 and Michael, 14, who live in Goldfield Avenue, Burnley, with their mother Pat Hawthornthwaite, and his eldest son Mark, 19.

Mick is the third member of his family to die in Spain during the last ten years.

Mick's mum, Cath, died of a heart attack in 1990 and his sister Sylvia died when she suffered a brain haemorrhage at the age of 38 while living in Spain. A former St Theodore's pupil, Mick became involved with the wholesale and vending of cigarettes after marrying his first wife, Pat.

They bought a newsagents at the top of Cog Lane, Burnley, and Mick became a partner in a wholesale tobacconist and cigarette vending business in Kearsley, Bolton.

They brought the vending part of the business to Oxford Road, Burnley, in 1985, and K Kimtrex became one of the largest cigarette vending businesses in the area.

Five years later, they bought the former Chalkers club, now Club 53, which they ran for about six years.

Mick sold the vending business last year due after suffering a stroke.

The funeral is planned for next Thursday or Friday in Westhoughton.

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