A FAMILY today paid tribute to the bravery of a man who married his girlfriend two days before losing his year-long battle with leukaemia.

Andrew Hollingworth proposed to Kirsty Astley, from Langho, just before Christmas after being told by doctors he didn't have long to live.

A special licence by the Archbishop of Canterbury allowed the couple to bypass the traditional reading of the banns and the marriage took place at St Lawrence's Church, Longridge, a week later.

Andrew died at the couple's home in Thirlmere Drive, Longridge, and was buried at the church where the couple had experienced the happiest day of their lives.

Today, Andrew's father, retired newsagent Jack Hollingworth, paid tribute to his brave son and thanked the town's community for helping make the wedding such a special day .

Kirsty, a matchday steward at Blackburn Rovers' Ewood Park, was too upset to speak about her husband's death, other than to say the wedding was the happiest day of her life.

But Jack said: "More than 250 people turned up for the wedding -and no invitations had been sent out. It was all word-of-mouth. At his funeral, there were more than 500 people.

"The wedding was a mixture of emotions. It was a very happy occasion but also sad. There wasn't a dry eye in the house.

"Everyone worked so hard to make sure it could happen, it was the Christmas present Andrew wanted."

Jack and his partner of eight years, Irene Edwards, used a speech at Andrew's funeral to call for more people to register with bone marrow transplant charities.

Andrew - known as Ollie by his friends - was in a wheelchair for the service on December 20 and had to have a rest before going on to the small reception organised by friends at the Thyme restaurant.

A former Longridge High School pupil, Andrew, 37, was diagnosed with leukaemia in October 2002, just months after meeting Kirsty, 22.

He worked as a retail operations advisor forSpar stores, while Kirsty, a former Clitheroe Royal Grammar School student, was working in the Langho shop while working towards a nursing degree.

The cancer was diagnosed after Andrew was taken to Royal Preston Hospital suffering from a throat infection. He was transferred to Manchester Royal Infirmary for treatment.

Jack said: "It came as a complete shock because the weekend before he went into hospital he had been playing football and golf and had a night out in Liverpool.

"But the nurses, and everyone who helped him in the NHS, were fantastic."

At first, the family felt he would recover but in May he had a setback and began a fresh course of treatment, including a cell transplant from his brother David in October.

Once again, his relatives thought he was getting better until they were told the cancer had manifested into a more aggressive strand.

Among those at both the wedding and the funeral were many of the sportsmen Andrew had played alongside for Longridge Town, St Wilfrid's FC and Ribchester Rovers.

Team-mates at Rovers arranged their own tribute for Andrew and have all signed the number nine shirt he used to wear and plan to frame it and hang it in the village's Black Bull Inn in Ribchester.

Jack, whose wife Muriel died in 1988 from cancer, said: "That's how I think most people will remember him for his sport. Just a few weeks before he died, he came third in the Captain's Day event at Longridge Golf Club, while his brother came first. It was the proudest day of my life."