Family pay tribute to Wanderers fan

Mark Farrell from Bolton died on October 1 after bleeding from an artery from his heart at the age of just 53. 

His family say he loved his hometown.

Mr Farrell fell ill seven years ago, and a condition affecting his arteries meant he spent the last two years of his life unable to walk

His daughter, Rhyanna Stockell, is now raising money to help her mum pay for a fitting funeral for the dad of four.

Mark Farrell and his daughters. (Image: Rhyanna Stockell)

She said: “My dad had been ill for a few years and it was towards the last two years that he wasn’t able to walk properly because of circulation being cut off.

“He was operated on for 12 hours and it just went downhill from there.

“It was traumatic for us, it was horrible and the worse thing we have ever been through because usually he was a happy family man, so seeing him on a hospital bed was just not like him.”

Mark and his wife Lisa did not tell their three children of the extent of his illness until the last two years, when he was too ill to hide it.

Rhyanna said: “He was a dad to four of us and a grandfather to nine kids, he loved us all.

“He was a kind hearted person and anybody that met him would love him.

“He was the person that if people walked into a room he was in, they would smile.”

Mark Farrell and Troy Tattershall (Image: Rhyanna Stockell)

Mark’s family want to hire a horse and carriage.

Rhyanna said: “We’d have a picnic at the Beverley Race Course and it was a brilliant day, it’s how we spent time as a family.

"No matter where we were, dad would always make sure we had fun.”

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The costs of the funeral are too much for Rhyanna’s mum Lisa to bear, so a Go Fund Me (www.gofundme.com/f/bsugju-mark-farrell?) has been set up for the family.