Devastated friends and family aim to give one of 'Woodhus’s finest a good send off'

Edwin ‘Edmund’ Horne, of Tattersall Walk, died aged 60, on December 2.

A GoFundMe collection has now been organised to pay for his funeral, as he lived ‘humbly’, only drawing a mineworker's pension for more than five years and had no life insurance or death benefits.

Susan Pearson is reaching out for people to fund the ‘send off he would have wanted’.

Mr Horne was born on September 22, 1961, at King’s Mill Hospital, Sutton, to Iris and Robert Horne. He was one of 10 children, alongside Clifford, Keith, Linda, Robert, Mary, Alan, Ellen, Vera and Chris.

Mr Horne attended Robin Hood Infant School, Robin Hood Junior School and Manor School, playing cricket and rugby.

After leaving school in 1977, he worked at Mansfield’s Crown Farm Colliery, Buxted Poultry, Sherwood Wall and Floor Tiling and Sutton Colliery.

He later transferred to Sherwood Colliery until 1992, when he worked at Precision Plastics.

In 1999, he was diagnosed with diabetes and retired due to ill health.

Friend Yvette Price-Mear met Mr Horne at school in 1967.

She said: “The headmistress told the children, there is a girl in a wheelchair here.

“She said ‘this is Yvette, she has poorly legs and is starting school soon, would anyone like to push her in her wheelchair?’. Edmund’s hand shot up and he'd been my best friend since.”

Ms Price-Mear nominated Mr Horne for a best friend of the year contest in 2015 – where he was crowned the winner by TV presenter Ruth Langsford after watching a filming of Loose Women.

He won a £500 London break, which Ms Price-Mear enjoyed, alongside champagne which she used as a prize to raise funds for her Pet Bereavement Support Service – Mr Horne was the charity's chairman – and a giant box of chocolates, which Ms Price-Mear ate.

“I was thinking purely of Edmund's health because he's diabetic,” she said. “He wasn't bothered – he got a cuddle with his teenage swoon, Gloria Hunniford.”

Ms Pearson said on the GoFundMe site: “Please, if you can spare anything – or just share this on your wall – let's give Eddy a send-off worthy of one of Woodhus’s finest.”

To donate, visit gofund.me/8b6fc7d2

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