‘Larger than life Billy a real friend to everyone’

A PUB has paid tribute to a ‘larger than life’ character who ‘everyone loved!

- OWEN YOUNGER

Billy Gibson enjoying a pint at Chaplins in Sunderland city centre

Billy Gibson was a regular at Chaplins in Sunderland city centre, and there has been an outpouring of emotion on Facebook in the wake of his death.

Billy died at around 5am on Tuesday morning, after he collapsed on Monday evening in the pub, and was taken to hospital.

Just 57 years old, Billy was a huge Sunderland AFC supporter, and a great friend to everyone he met, with pub manager Debra Jones sharing that he will be “a huge miss”.

She said: “Billy was a larger than life character who always watched out for us staff, and everyone else who came into the pub.

“He was a real friend to everyone, very loud and vibrant, making the atmosphere in here amazing, and everyone here loved him.

“He would help everyone that he could, and had so much of an impact on all of us, so that we wanted to do things for him as well.