Girlfriend and family pay tribute to Danny Davies (From Swindon Advertiser)

Girlfriend and family pay tribute to Danny Davies

8:30am Friday 11th January 2013 in News By Josh Layton

A CARING and kind man, Danny Davies overcame one of the harshest of starts in life imaginable to gain the respect and admiration of his family.

Danny, who was 45, died after collapsing in the street. He was dealt a bad hand in life but won the love of girlfriend Sarah Sherwood and their four children.

He never let his inner demons wreck his bond with his family, despite enduring a cruel and traumatic upbringing as a child in Abingdon.

Danny suffered a broken arm at the age of three months and by four was placed in care, where he was physically abused.

He met Sarah 24 years ago and despite an on-off relationship they remained close even during his battle with drink and drugs.

“Danny was a kind, caring man who was liked by everyone who met him,” Sarah said.

“He always thought he didn’t cut it as a dad, but his children worshipped the ground he walked on.

“The drink and the drugs affected our relationship at times and I wasn’t strong enough to fix it.

“When we were together he would do the housework, look after the children and when we weren’t together we still cared for each other.

“Danny had had everything thrown at him but he still managed to be a good person.

“He loved animals and he wouldn’t step on a spider. Despite it all, he had a good heart.”

Danny, who moved to Swindon from Abingdon aged 17, had been good academically at school despite being a tearaway and had hidden talents, which were rarely obvious on the surface.

“Danny was good at art, he loved being creative and when he did something, he did it to perfection,” said Sarah.

“If he put his mind to it, he would do 100 times better than me. “ Life led Danny to Swindon and the first people he met were drinkers.

From then on he struggled to break the grip of drink, drugs and, in recent times, legal highs.

Danny died in Great Western Hospital, Swindon on December 1 after collapsing two days before while walking along Manchester Road.

Sarah said she finds it hard to accept he was with people who did not help him at the time, leaving the emergency services to try to trace his family from a Post Office account card.

Paramedics spent 35 minutes trying to revive him, but by that time he was brain dead, and he died in intensive care after his family had said their last goodbyes.

Danny’s funeral was held on December 20 at Kingsdown Crema-torium.

He is missed by his children Damon, 20, Robert, 19, Dion, nine, and Reanne, eight.

Robert, who lives with his mother in Pinehurst, said: “He was a brilliant dad.

“The last thing he said to me was ‘son, you’re a man now’ because he had found out my girlfriend was pregnant with our baby.

“He was a good man dealt a bad hand in life.”

A pathologist is compiling a report establishing the cause of death before an inquest can take place.

• In Wednesday’s Adver a report said Danny was homeless and had died on the day he left prison. Neither assertion is true and we apologise for any confusion or distress caused.