Tributes to Hednesford sportsman who lost cancer battle
Tributes have been paid to a popular sportsman from Staffordshire who died shortly after being diagnosed with bowel cancer.
Alex Graham, who played in local football teams for more than 45 years and was also a keen golfer, died on Boxing Day.
The 60-year-old, of Belt Road, Hednesford, had helped to set up Chase Strollers FC around 15 years ago and managed the veterans team which plays in the Staffordshire FA Veterans League.
The former Kingsmead High School pupil, whose position was sweeper, had also played for Calving Hill Youth Club FC, Littleton FC and the West Cannock Fives.
Mr Graham, who was born in Kirkconnel, Scotland, but moved to Hednesford when he was a year old, was also a member of Ingestre Park Golf Club in Stafford and had organised charity golf days for St Giles Hospice.
He had started working at Littleton Colliery as an electrician in the early 1970s and became a self-employed electrician in the mid-1980s.
Father-of-three Pop Popovic, who had known Mr Graham for 40 years, said his death had left everyone devastated.
The 61-year-old, of Stafford Road, Cannock, said: "It has left a massive hole in the community. He was a popular person in Hednesford. He had a tremendous number of friends. He was an honest person and that kind of guy you could trust if you had anything to talk about. "Even if he was annoyed or upset he would always try to make people laugh through it."
He said Mr Graham had found out he had bowel cancer several weeks before he died but kept the news quiet from his friends, only choosing to tell his sister Kathleen.
His funeral will take place at Stafford Crematorium on Friday at 4pm and people are being asked to make donations to the Bobby Moore Fund, which raises money for bowel cancer research, and Katharine House Hospice.
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