THE funeral of a man who died hours after his first night out since being paralysed in a car accident took place in front of a packed congregation, yesterday.

Michael Anthony Bellas, 26, died at his home in Kirkdale, Spennymoor, County Durham, early on Sunday, June 14, after attending the town’s Cube nightclub.

The father-of-two was with friends on his first social night out since last June when he was in an accident that left him a tetraplegic.

Scores of mourners attended the service at St Paul’s, in Spennymoor, which was conducted by the Reverend Lynda Gough.

Ms Gough said the number of people at the funeral was a measure of how popular Mr Bellas was and that he was loved and respected by many in the community.

She said: “Michael was a remarkable person and this last year, with all its difficulties, brought out the best of him.

“He showed such courage and determination never to give up and to make the most of his body that was tragically paralysed in that accident.”

Ms Gough said that Mr Bellas, who attended North Road Primary and Tudhoe Grange schools before training as a joiner and later working at the town’s Electrolux factory, had remarkable spirit and humour.

She described him as a good looking ladies’ man who had the nurses at The James Cook University Hospital, in Middlesbrough, “wrapped round his finger” during his stay there.

“He would send them out to get him fish and chips and kebabs and he would sing while he was being washed,”

she said.

Ms Gough described Mr Bellas as a doting father to daughters Jade, seven, and two-year-old Karmen.

She said he was also close to his sister, Becky Simpson, brothers, Tyler Jones and Josh Bellas, his grandparents and parents.

Ms Gough told how Mr Bellas, a regular at the Cube, once stood in for a DJ who did not turn up and how he loved music and socialising.

Directing mourners to the wake at Middlestone Moor Club, Ms Gough said: “Share memories and party, as he would have wanted.”

■ The Northern Echo attended the funeral with permission from the family.