Sheffield United fan’s heartbroken family ask mourners to ‘wave him off from their windows’

Mark Wilson’s family had planned a big send-off but attendance at his funeral tomorrow, Saturday, March 28, has been restricted to close family as part of measures to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

Instead, they want people to wave to show he is in their thoughts as an HGV carrying his coffin, which has been draped with the Blades colours, passes their homes.

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Mark was born and bred in Killamarsh and worked as a plumber and gas fitter for the council in the area before launching his own business.

He sadly died on March 15, aged 53, following a four-year battle with prostate cancer.

Mark will be cremated at Chesterfield and District Crematorium in Brimington tomorrow with the HGV carrying his body travelling from JF Knight Funeral Directors in Handsworth via the A57 to his home on Jubilee Crescent in Killamsarsh, from where it is due to depart for the crematorium at 10.45am.

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The lorry will head along Bridge Street in Killmarsh and down through Westthorpe and Spinkhill on its way to the crematorium.

Mark’s mum Margaret Wilson told how he and his son Charlie, aged 19, were both massive Blades fans and he prided himself on never missing a match until his chemotherapy left him unable to travel to see them in action more recently.

He continued to work until a few weeks before his death and no job was too much trouble, she said, even if that meant heading out in the middle of the night to fix a broken boiler.

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He was a motorbike fanatic and also loved lorries, and it was his last request to be be taken to the crematorium on an HGV.

“He was so loving, affectionate, hard-working and generous to a fault,” said Margaret.

“He was a lovely lad who was a larger than life character and after his diagnosis used to tell people ‘I’ve got cancer, cancer hasn’t got me’.

“He had so many friends and it’s sad they can’t all be at the funeral and we’re not able to give him the send-off we wanted to because of coronavirus.

“Instead, we’re asking his friends, colleagues and fellow Blades fans to give him a wave as he passes by on his final journey.

“It would give us such a lift to know he’s remembered because it’s so sad to go to your resting place with hardly anyone there.”

Mark, who is survived by his wife Helen and son Charlie, will be cremated in his Sheffield United shirt.

Margaret said attendance at the funeral had been limited to 24 and mourners were planning to wear masks but the service would be relayed over a loudspeaker for close friends and family sitting in their cars outside and would be streamed online for those unable to make the journey.