A FUNERAL director touched by the plight of a mother struggling to bring her son’s body home from Spain has offered to do his funeral for free.

As reported in Wednesday’s Lancashire Telegraph, the family of Neil Walker, 37, of Clitheroe, were unable to pay the £6,000 to fly his body back from Alicante.

Mr Walker died suddenly last November whilst living out in Spain, but since then his devastated mother Joan Crossland, 64, of Pilmuir Road, Higher Croft, Blackburn, has been left with little choice but to leave his body out there.

But Harry Gibbs, manager of Talbot Funeral Service, Whalley New Road, Blackburn, said if they could bring Mr Walker’s body back to Lancashire his firm would do a funeral for free.

He said: “I would hate for my mum to be in that position and not be able to bring me home if I passed away abroad.

“We can put ourselves in her position and know that no one should have to go through what she is at the moment.

“I have never heard of anything like this before because usually insurance cover repatriation costs.

“If they can get his body back we would do a very simple service for the family.”

Talbot’s is an independent funeral directors that has been in the town since 1876.

Help also came in the form of Blackburn Funeral Services.

Bosses there got in touch with the Lancashire Telegraph and forwarded a new list of repatriation costs amounting to £3,640 - massively less than the £6,000 bill the family is currently facing.

The family is now looking into the possibility of setting up an appeal fund to try and raise the cash needed to bring Neil’s body back to Blackburn.

Carl Walker, Neil’s brother, said: “The response from the people of Blackburn has been extremely compassionate.

“The response from them and the funeral directors has been staggering and shows that if you put something across to the people of the town they respond.”