A REMEMBRANCE service is to be held for a Bolton expat who died after setting out on an ocean fishing trip with a friend.

Nigel Kitchen, aged 50, failed to return with Andy Hinds, aged 57, from an angling outing off the coast of Western Australia on May 29.

DNA tests proved on Wednesday (June 15) an arm discovered by divers days later on the seabed belonged to the former Briton.

Mr Kitchen's mother, Lilian Nightingale, and siblings have arranged the remembrance service for his friends, relatives, ex-schoolfriends and former colleagues in Britain at the Holiday Inn hotel in Higher Bridge Street in Bolton town centre at 6pm on Wednesday. (June 22)

Ms Nightingale, of Anglia Grove, Deane, said: "Nigel was a much-loved and respected gentleman, both here and over there.

"He had lots of friends over there in Australia — and a load of friends here as well. He was very well known here.

"We are encouraging people to come along to the service.

"We are expecting quite a lot of people. It's looking like it's getting towards 100 if everybody who said they would come comes.

"There will be readings and videos shared and we're going to video the service and send the footage to Australia."

Mr Kitchen was living with his mother in Deane Church Lane, Deane, and was working for Coca Cola when he emigrated with girlfriend and Bolton native Tracey Whiteside and her family to Australia in November 1989.

They married a year and a half later and went on to have a daughter, Jessica, who is now aged 22.

His second marriage to Tracy Stanton produced sons James, aged 13, and Jonathan, aged 11.

Mr Kitchen, who became a naturalised Australian, and Mr Hinds lived with their families in different suburbs in Perth on the west coast of Australia.

They were holidaying 1,200km further north when they set out on their tragic fishing trip from Coral Bay to catch mackerel on a reef.

No trace of either the vessel, an 8.2m boat belonging to Mr Hinds, or Mr Hinds himself has been found.

Mr Kitchen was the eldest sibling and leaves behind his mother, sisters Joanne Kitchen, Jeanette Henderson and Ann Kitchen, brother Duncan Edwards and half siblings Michael Kitchen, Thomas Kitchen and Sarah Kitchen, most of whom live in Bolton.

It has proved the second heart-breaking blow for Ms Nightingale after Mr Kitchen's youngest brother Mark died in 1987 aged 11 following heart defects.

By coincidence Ms Nightingale appealed through The Bolton News in April – the month before Mr Kitchen's disappearance – for a mystery runner who donated a Bolton Marathon medal to Mark in 1983 to come forward.

She said: "I've now lost my youngest and my eldest sons."

The family hope the remembrance service will provide a fitting celebration of Mr Kitchen's life and a moment to reflect on the popular father-of-three.

Ms Nightingale said: "We're going to fill the room with memories and if you want to get up and say something then you can do."

The family are setting up a JustGiving donation page to raise money for the RNLI in Britain in Mr Kitchen's memory.