'Everyone' invited to attend funeral of 'King of Sheffield' Willy Collins who died on Spanish holiday
and live on Freeview channel 276
Willy Collins, who was known to many as Big Willy Collins, passed away last month aged 49 in Port de Pollença, on the Spanish island of Majorca.
A post mortem revealed the father-of-nine, from Darnall, died of natural causes after a bleeding ulcer in his stomach burst to cause a haemorrhage.
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Hide AdHis funeral will take place at Shiregreen Cemetery on Saturday, August 15, beginning at 1pm.
However, as the current coronavirus restrictions limit the number of people attending a funeral to 30, it will instead be a graveside service so everyone can adhere to social distancing.
His wife Kathleen said: “On August 14, he’ll be going to my son’s yard and we’ll be having a 24-hour wake there.
"Then the next morning he’ll come to Darnall and we’ll be setting off from Darnall Road, near to what used to be The Ball Inn, at around 10.30am. We’ll be going through Darnall, and up through Pitsmoor where he grew up as a young lad, and on to Shiregreen Cemetery where we’ll have an electric lift to lower the coffin.
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Hide Ad"We’ve also hired a marquee for social distancing and we’ll make it look like a church inside. We’ll also be playing his favourite music, he loved Joe Dolan who is an Irish singer.
“August 15 is a special day for us, and a lot of the traveller community and Catholics, because it’s Our Lady’s day.
"My husband was well-known, respected and loved by everybody. Everyone who knew him, no matter what origin they are, are welcome – he loved life and he’s got many friends and he would love them all there.”
Willy, who was born in Ireland, moved to Sheffield in 1980 and was a regular at Brendan Ingle's gym in Wincobank – often jogging miles across the city to get there every day.
His body was repatriated to the UK on July 23.
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Hide AdThere will be a party to celebrate Willy’s life shortly after his burial, details of which will be confirmed at a later date.