Gentle giant who defied ill health to become a winner

Touching tributes were paid to the 44-year-old transplant games gold medallist, at a packed village church in east Durham.

Officials and team-mates from the Great Britain squad joined family and friends at St Andrew's Church, in Blackhall, near Hartlepool, for a service led by lay reader Dorothy Brumwell.

Mrs Brumwell described father-of-two Mr Ayre, who collapsed and died at the World Transplant Games in France, two weeks ago, as "an inspiration to many others".

She said: "Everyone knew Alan as a smiling, happy person, full of life, a good friend to have . . . he is very much loved and admired, as is obvious from the number of people who have come here today to pay him tribute."

Mr Ayre's daughter, Andrea, 22, read a poem in which she described her father as "a great man", while four officials from the transplant team paid their own tributes.

Andrea said: "That wonderful man died with a smile on his face. He knew he had been a great success as a husband, a father, a son and a friend."

Team manager Peter Griffin spoke of 6ft 6in Mr Ayre's leadership qualities as team captain at the world games in Kobe, Japan, two years ago, where he won one of his many golds in badminton.

"I will always remember Alan as a gentle, unassuming, giant of a man," said Mr Griffin. "I came to regard him as more than a badminton team member, but also a friend who I shall greatly miss."

Mr Ayre's kidney condition was spotted during a medical in 1991 when he gave up a job at Horden Colliery to join the police. After a year of treatment, he had a transplant.

He had competed in British and World games for the past nine years and won more than 50 medals - excelling in badminton, volleyball, shooting and archery.

Team doctor Lynne Holt, who is also transplant recipient co-ordinator at the Freeman Hospital, Newcastle, told the congregation how, following Mr Ayre's death, the French team wrote to the British and told them: "We lost a mighty man."