Emotional funeral of much-loved house blast survivor and Cosham Tesco worker Gary Smy to take place this week

Up to 150 people are set to pack out Portchester Crematorium at 2.30pm to give Gary Smy the send-off he deserves.

The popular 57-year-old, who worked at Tesco in Cosham for 34 years, died unexpectedly last month at Queen Alexandra Hospital after suffering a number of health battles in recent months.

Gary had survived the Nelson Avenue house blast in North End with his mum Denise on October 22 after being pulled from the rubble by Royal Navy Petty Officer Jon Thornber.

A large turnout is expected for his funeral on Friday with a number of tributes planned for the day. These will include a funeral cortege that will stop at the top of Cosham High Street near the Tesco store he was adored at for his whole adult working life.

Then the procession at the crematorium will be led by a local child’s author playing Scottish bagpipes.

Gary’s coffin will feature a display of flowers of the Spitfire plane he loved alongside a cushion of his beloved football team Manchester United.

Gary will be dressed in a Christmas jumper bought for him by Tesco staff after he was sad to lose his original in the house blast. He will also adorn part of his uniform.

Tributes during the service will be led by Gary’s aunt Sylvia Fisher and store manager Rob Milner.

Sylvia said: ‘The funeral will be lovely but dreadful at the same time as it so sad. People are so upset. Everywhere I go people know about Gary.

‘All the girls at Tesco are very upset. They were all like second mums to Gary and knew him for years, as did the manager Rob. They were like a big family. He fell on his feet working there.

‘He couldn’t have gone to a better place. It was his life. All the girls at work say it will never be the same again there.

‘Everyone took to Gary no matter who they were. He would treat everyone the same. And everywhere you went someone would always say: “Hello Gary.”

‘I remember saying to him: “You could never do anything wrong because someone would know.”’

She added: ‘It’s still so hard to believe he’s gone after all he went through. It was totally unexpected.’

After the house blast Gary spent weeks in a specialist burns unit in Salisbury Hospital before being released into a nursing home.

He was then in Queen Alexandra Hospital after suffering with sepsis and pneumonia in March - as well as a bout of Covid.

In June he had open heart surgery but survived the ordeal before passing away in hospital in July.

The regard he was held in was illustrated with a £7,000 cheque donated to him following a community fundraising drive led by the store to help him get back on his feet after losing most of his belongings in the blast.

Colleagues from 25 stores across the south, including some as far away as Poole, Bournemouth and the Isle of Wight, joined the effort. Donations were also handed in by customers and businesses across Cosham.

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Donation at the funeral will be to the British Heart Foundation.