A dad died suddenly on Christmas Day, just after laughing and joking with his family. This has been called a “heartbreaking” loss.
Gareth Blenkins, who was known as “Gaz” by his friends and family, died on December 25 of what is thought to have been a heart attack. He was with his family in Cottingley for the holidays.
Local news source LeedsLive says that the father of one went outside to smoke a cigarette before coming back inside, where the terrible thing happened.
His cousin, Damien Sharpe, told the outlet that Blenkins was “laughing and joking, but then he just clutched his chest, fell to the floor, and started having a fit.”
Gareth blenkins aka Gaz
https://t.co/lcslGaejtK— Arcticwolf (@wnxarcticwolf) December 30, 2022
The 40-year-old was taken to the hospital right away, but Sharpe said it was “too late” at that point.
His brain went for too long without oxygen,
the heartbroken relative continued.
Unfortunately, he didn’t come round from it.
Blenkins recently celebrated his 40th birthday with his friends in Malaga, Spain, which makes the sad news even worse.
Sharpe said that his 15-year-old son was what he “lived for.”
He was strong, he’d do anything for anybody, very protective. Sometimes he’d be quite shy but if he noticed you were sad, he’d always say ‘Do you need a Blenkins cuddle?’ I’ll never forget those words,
the 42-year-old added.
A GoFundMe page has now been set up for the late painter and decorator. So far, £7,477, which is about $9,045, has been raised.
His cousin wrote in the description:
If you knew Gareth or had any interaction with him you know how good he inside and out, how much he loved life and never hurt a fly…
…As we all know life is hard sometimes and now with cost of living it’s even more expensive and we as a family cannot imagine life with our Gaz and how this devastating news has affected us all.
He went on to say that the family is raising money to help pay for the funeral because of the rising cost of living.
…We know our gaz wouldn’t want to ask but we are wanting to raise funds to help toward his funeral cost, this isn’t a begging post or anything like that just a post to help for the family… We want to give him the best send off we possibly can and with your help we can maybe achieve this.
If you can find it in you heart to donate towards this then we will be very appreciated…
he added.
During this hard time, our thoughts are with the family.
