FAMILY and friends of a Penhill legend and accidental hero have said goodbye.

Brian Young, known around Penhill as Father Christmas, died last month aged 77 after a battle with non-Hodgkins lymphoma.

His family described the pensioner as a person who always put others before himself.

Over the years Brian was featured more than once in the pages of the Advertiser.

His first brush with the paper came in 1973, when he used the lorry he used every day for work to tow away vehicles from a massive fire in Newport Street.

Years later in 1993 he again made the news after a major smash on the M4.

Spotting the accident, he got out of his car and lent a helping hand to pluck passengers from a car that had flipped over and was blocking the centre lane.

According to his eldest daughter Jackie Dudek, the goodwill was eventually repaid.

Jackie said her dad would have done anything for anyone.

“He was always helping people, anyone could knock on the door and he would go out of his way to assist them,” she said.

“He was a very proud man, and devoted, always putting his family above himself.

“We never had much money, but he always made us feel good about our situation.

“He was always bringing things home from the market.

“Once he brought a lifesized stuffed grizzly bear, which the whole family remember vividly.

“There wasn’t a dry eye when that man passed.

“He was a larger than life kind of guy.”

She added that during his January 16 funeral the family attempted to celebrate his life, rather than focus on the gloomy side of his passing.

He was cremated in his ‘plonker’ T-shirt and was dressed in his working clothes.

Jackie said: “We showed a slide show and tried to laugh instead of crying.

“He would have wanted it that way, we all agreed everyone there wanted to remember the good stuff.

“I think that was because we all knew if we started crying we would have never stopped.”

Brian, who has been likened to the TV character Del Boy, is survived by his wife Wyn, and seven children, Jackie, Wendy, Denise, Paula, Nick, Larry and Anthony, his 23 grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.