Appeal launched for family of Milton Keynes dad-of-three who died suddenly aged just 41

Niah Hallam and her three children are still in shock after 41-year-old Steve, known as ‘Brummy’ suffered a massive heart attack out of the blue.

Now friends of the family have helped them launch a poignant fundraising appeal to help them pay the £4,500 costs of his funeral next month.

"It’s such a lot of money. We keep trying to keep the cost down but we really want to give Steve the funeral he deserves,” said Niah.

She had popped out for a while on Monday September 5 when she received a panicking call from her children, Steven aged 19, Joshua, 17 and 14-year-old Lani.

“Steve had been complaining that day of pain in his arm. He suffers from fibromyalgia and rheumatoid arthritis so we thought it was due to that. He said he’d have a warm bath and thought the pain would get better, as it usually did.”

Son Joshua was in his bedroom when his dad walked in and said he thought he was having a heart attack.

The children sat him in a chair and called an ambulance but Steve swiftly lost consciousness. The paramedics took just 12 minutes to arrive, during which time the youngster bravely performed CPR on their dad.

Steve was taken to hospital and put on a life support machine. But sadly it was discovered he was brain dead and the machine was switched off a week later, with his family at his bedside.

"He had been in cardiac arrest for a total of 50 minutes, despite the best efforts of everyone. So the damage to the brain was just too much,” said Niah. “The only good thing was that those extra days when he was in hospital gave us all time to say our goodbyes.

"Everyone who tried to save his life, from the paramedics and the doctors and nurses who looked after him, did their absolute best. They were brilliant. I have no words to describe how amazing they were. But sadly he could not be saved.

"He was only 41 years old and it was all so very sudden and unexpected.”

Niah and Steve, a bricklayers by trade, had been together for 20 years and married for 17 years.

"He was our world. Family was everything to him,” said Niah, who organises events at Frosts Garden Centre.

“The shock of losing Steve has caught us all off-guard. With the weight of the world and the cost of living to increase, we fear we will struggle to give Steve the send-off he truly deserves.

"We ask you, as a family, please could you support us in generating the funeral costs for Steve, we ask for no amount on the donations as every amount means so much to us all.”

The family has thanked everyone for the kindness they have shown since Steve’s death.

You can view GoFundMe page here.