A BEREAVED family are raising money to give their dad ‘the send-off he deserves’.

Dad-of-three Darren Sergent, 48, died after getting pneumonia which caused him to have a hypoxic cardiac arrest.

He was admitted to Bolton Hospital on January 19 but sadly died last Thursday.

Due to his mental health Darren was unable to work and was on disability living allowance, which meant that he did not leave his family with the necessary money to fund a funeral.

In order to lay him to rest his three children, Brianna, 25, Shane, 27 and John, 21, have created an online donation page to try to raise £2,000.

The siblings, who all live in Atherton, have already raised £800 from selling personal items, which will be added to the online donations that had reached £620 in a matter of hours after being set up.

Mum-of-two Brianna Sargent, who lives in Yewtree Avenue, said: “We want to try to lay him to rest as soon as possible.

“I couldn’t bear the thought of him being in the morgue in the hospital.

“He wanted to be cremated so we have now been able to pay the deposit for that at Wigan Crematorium in Lower Ince, which I am really glad about.

“I just want him to be given what he deserves.

“The last thing I wanted to do was ask people for money but you don’t expect to be left in a situation like this.

“I don’t even feel like I have been able to grieve properly yet because of how much we have had to do.”

The grandfather of two, who lived in Carr Bank Street, was soon to become a granddad for the third time and has been described by his family as ‘a gentle giant’.

Brianna, a senior care worker, said: “He loved his music and we have picked out Amazing Grace on the bagpipes to be played on his way in and then Leona Lewis' Run and Music Was My First Love.

“It’s been really hard. My seven-year-old daughter turned to me the other day and said, ‘I know you haven’t got a lot of money mum because you’re spending it all on grandad, but can you buy me a telescope so I can see him in heaven?’.

“He will always be known to us a gentle giant and that’s what I said to him in the hospital.

“Every time we have got a donation I have cried. It is so overwhelming.

“I can’t thank people enough.”

To donate go to: gofundme.com/hnjabw58.