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Mark Aveyard: Cookridge family's anguish over island death
A heartbroken Cookridge family have spoken of their desperate search for answers after their son died thousands of miles from home.
Mark Aveyard, 30, was found dead on Gran Canaria last Friday – but no details have been given to relatives.
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Parents Gary and Christine are now urgently trying to find out what happened to Mark, who moved to the island nearly three years ago after losing his job on a building site.
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They are also desperately trying to raise the money to travel abroad.
Mr Aveyard, 55, said: "We've been treated appallingly. The first we knew of Mark's death was when one of his friends texted us
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"She said he had fallen over and hit his head, but since then we've heard conflicting stories. It's been a week from hell. We're finding it impossible to cope."
A weeping Mrs Aveyard, 53, said: "He's all on his own out there. We just want to bring him home."
Mr Aveyard said it would cost around 20,000 to fly Mark's body home, so the family had opted for a cremation in Gran Canaria.
But this would cost between 2,000 and 3,000, and with engineer Mr Aveyard out of work, the family are struggling to afford the flights.
He described Mark, who worked as a barman in Gran Canaria, as a "very popular man".
He said: "He liked to party. He was a joker and quite a character."
The family, including Mark's brother David, 35, and sister Jennifer, 26, plan to launch a website in memory of the former Allerton Grange pupil.
Mr Aveyard said: "We want to give people information on what they can do if they're in a similar situation.
"We never want anyone to go through what we're going through.We just want to be with our son and find out what happened . The whole situation is a living nightmare."
* Anyone who can help the Aveyards can email them at:
gaveyard@hotmail.co.uk
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