FORMER choirboy Aled Jones is to grant a Hyndburn widow's final wish of having her ashes scattered in the sea where her husband died during the Falklands conflict.

Oswaldtwistle-born Edmund Flanagan became the second Hyndburn casualty of the campaign when an Exocet missile hit the Atlantic Conveyor on which he was chief petty officer.

The 37-year-old, a former member of the Accrington Sea Cadets, is believed to have died instantly and his body was never found.

Last month his widow, Anita died at the age of 57, and their daughter Cassandra Flanagan put an appeal in local and national newspapers asking for someone to take the ashes to the South Atlantic.

It was answered by singer and television presenter Aled Jones, and today Miss Flanagan will take her mother's ashes to his record company, Universal Records, in London.

The former childhood star will fulfil Mrs Flanagan's wish when he films an episode of Songs of Praise near the islands later this month.

A qualified nurse, Mrs Flanagan gave up her career to look after her children after her husband died.

Miss Flanagan, 29, of Elford, Kent, said: "She mentioned it a while ago and I didn't really take it seriously because I didn't expect her to go so soon.

"I think she would be quite pleased because that's what she wanted

"Knowing she is going to get her wish is great. She never met anyone else, never remarried.

"Had she been around for another 20 years she still wouldn't have got over losing him.

"I'm so grateful but it wouldn't have mattered if it had been Joe Bloggs from around the corner."

Jones, 30, who hit the charts with his boyhood rendition of Walking in the Air, said: "It's a privilege to help Cassie lay her mother to rest in the Falklands alongside her father."