A KARAOKE-LOVING landlord will get his final wish when songs he recorded are played at his funeral.

Brian Boyce, who ran the Kensington Tavern, Derby, died on Friday, only moments after buying Christmas presents for all his family.

He suffered from cryptogenic fibrosing alveolitis – a terminal disease causing the hardening of the lungs and wanted to make sure his family had gifts to remember him by.

He was expected to live for five years after his diagnosis but the 64-year-old survived for seven.

Last year, he recorded his favourite karaoke songs, including a rendition of Frank Sinatra's My Way, to be played at his funeral.

His daughter, Samantha, said knowing his CD was going to be played would have brought a smile to her father's face.

The 38-year-old said: "He really enjoyed being in the limelight and that's why he enjoyed his singing, especially when people would clap and cheer him on.

"Dad only discovered he could sing in the last few years of his life and he always regretted that – he thought it was too late.

"He always had a quirky sense of humour and that is probably where the idea to have his singing played at his funeral came from.

"Hearing his voice at the funeral will have us all in tears but that's the kind of dramatic ending he always said he wanted."

Mr Boyce became a hit karaoke singer at the Drewry Lane pub and produced the CD last year at the Music Shed recording studio, Canal Street.

Mr Boyce, who ran the pub with his wife, Linda, had to inhale oxygen from special equipment for 20 hours a day.

Miss Boyce, who lives in Castleshaw Drive, Littleover, said that, despite his illness, her father's death had come as a shock.

She said: "We expected him to make it to Christmas and he had been finishing shopping for presents on the internet the day he died.

"He'd just bought the last presents and went for a lie down about 20 minutes after, and then he died. It was a real shock.

"He has presents for all of us because he wanted to make sure we all had something to remember him by.

"But that was the kind of man he was – a larger-than-life character who cared a lot for his family and friends."

Mr Boyce's funeral will be held at Markeaton Crematorium, from 12pm on Friday, November 13. Friends are welcome to attend and can bring flowers.

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