FORMER footballer Graham Fell lost his battle with cancer just nine days after the death of his beloved mum.

Graham, 60, of the town centre, died at the Prospect Hospice on February 13 after fighting throat cancer for more than two years, which eventually spread to his lungs.

Graham died just over a week after his mother, Amy, who passed away on February 4 at the age of 93, and they will be cremated together next week.

His widow Lynn said: “He was the love of my life – he was absolutely perfect.

“He was a great husband and dad and he just did everything, he lived for his family. He was an only child and he just revelled in the fact that he had three children.

“Graham’s dad, Harold, died in February last year so in a year they have all gone which is so sad, but a comfort that they are all together.

“With the joint cremation he is going to be with his mum, he’s going to go out as he came in with his mum. That is some comfort to us all.”

Graham, who was a Manchester United fan, played for a number of local sides including Swindon Vics, Calne, Fairford Town in the Hellenic League, and Moreton where they won the Hellenic Premier League and the Hellenic Premier Cup Double.

He played for the Greyhound and represented Wiltshire and Gloucester.

And he also managed Fairford Town, Wantage and Calne football teams and led Calne to runner-up positions in the Western League and Wiltshire Professional Shield.

“Although I have known him nearly 28 years he still got confused as to whether my birthday was on December 18 or 19 but if you asked him a football score from 1987 he could even tell you who scored the goal, that’s how much he was about football,” she said.

He leaves his wife of 24 years, Lynn, and three children Gary, Kayla and Josh.

Graham and Lynn met after a mutual friend set them up on a blind date and they tied the knot 18 months later in 1987 when Lynn asked Graham whether he would ever consider getting married again.

“He said ‘only if it was to you’. He was just a really big softy,” she said.

“It was the best thing that could ever have happened to me.”

Graham worked at Rover until he took voluntary redundancy and then worked in the factory at WH Smiths alongside Lynn until two years ago and they used to have lunch together.

“I got to see him during the day so it was sweet. Most people couldn’t bear working with their other half but for me it was a bonus,” she said.

Graham, also known as ‘Felly’, drank at the Greyhound pub and landlord Martin Goodfellow, who has known him since 1978, described him as ‘a family man’.

“He was a gentleman just like his father.

“I will miss seeing him and I miss his father as well,” he said.

The joint cremation will be at Kingsdown Crematorium on March 1 at 12.45pm.