Funeral at last – but friends say it has taken far too long

FRIENDS of a Northumberland man who died two months ago but has spent that time in a hospital mortuary have hit out at the fact that no public authority has taken responsibility for his funeral.

- SAM VOLPE Health reporter [e-mail]

Des Lowther, 68, died of bowel cancer in the Royal Victoria Infirmary in Newcastle on October 2.

The former charity worker from Prudhoe had no next-of-kin and friend Lisa Botto said how upsetting it had been that no one stepped up to pay for his funeral.

She claimed that neither the Newcastle Hospitals NHS Trust nor Newcastle City Council had been willing to fund what is known as a "public health" funeral.

This is usually direct cremation. Now, two months later, Des' friends have been able to pay for a cremation - thanks to Barclays Bank agreeing to release the remaining funds in Des' account and a crowdfunding page set up in recent days.

But they said this should never have been on them, and that the state should have helped.

Lisa said: "We have been left fuming at this situation. I worked with Des for ten years at a charity. He had had numerous health problems including cancer three times. He had bowel cancer and he died on October 2.