FRIENDS and family of a father-of-two who died suddenly over Christmas are being encouraged to wear bright colours at his funeral.

The life of 26-year-old Patrick Lavery, known by people close to him as Paddy, will be celebrated at his funeral at 3pm on Tuesday at West Road Crematorium, in Newcastle.

And his family are asking attendees to turn up in non-traditional funeral-wear to join in as they ask the popular Tynedale man to ‘Shine Brightly Paddy’.

Patrick, who grew up in Corbridge but lived latterly in the village of Wall with his wife Penny, fell ill on Christmas Day. He passed away of natural causes two days later in Cramlington’s Northumbria Specialist Emergency Care Hospital.

His wife Penny said: “He should be an inspiration for others and certainly will be for me and our children.

“When he set his mind on something, he went out and did it, and he was the most selfless person I know.”

Family members spoke of the huge shock at the sudden death, Patrick a doting father to his two young sons Oliver and James.

He and Penny, who celebrated their first wedding anniversary in December one year on from battling Storm Desmond to tie the knot at Healey Barn, were expecting a third child.

Patrick had a lot to look forward to in 2017 and he had just secured a new job as a heavy goods vehicle driver, after years of working as a valeter at Wylam Garage, in Hexham.

Well-known in the Tynedale area, the former pupil at Hexham’s Queen Elizabeth High School was the youngest of five children to Sylvia and the late Peter Lavery, of Corbridge.

A popular member at both Hexham and Corbridge youth initiatives, he was known as a cheeky, free-spirited lad who enjoyed playing pranks and entertaining his friends and siblings Malcolm, Lisa, Tanya and Stacey.

A great love of his was fixing and driving cars, a pasttime he shared with brother Malcolm and passed on to his oldest son Oliver.

Members of Patrick’s family said in a statement: “As a doting dad, he was always a down-to-earth family man who showed great pride in all his family. In return, he was loved as a husband, daddy, brother, son, son-in-law and uncle to young nieces and nephews, equally bereft at the loss of Uncle Paddy.

“He always had grafters’ hands, a cheeky laugh, that naturally beautiful smile or, even more, the spontaneous but restrained little chuckle which, to all who heard it, was the sound of happiness during a life lived to the full.

“His memory will be carried on through all those that knew and loved him.”

A retiring collection in aid of The British Heart Foundation will take place after Patrick’s funeral.