WHEN news spread of the death of glazier Andy Lee, villagers turned up on his doorstep to offer their condolences.

Mr Lee, from East Hagbourne near Didcot, died last Thursday after being diagnosed with inoperable cancer earlier this year.

His widow Sarah, 44, said her husband – who ran Didcot Glass & Glazing – was so well known she had already received 88 condolence cards.

And the family has been contacted by so many people that the 2pm funeral next Wednesday has been moved from the village church to Dorchester Abbey to cope with the expected numbers.

“People have been turning up on the doorstep in tears after hearing the news,” said Mrs Lee.

“Andy had worked in the area all his life and met so many customers over the years. People have been so kind and have brought food around and helped out with looking after the children.

“We were expecting this because of what the doctors had told us, but Andy’s death has still come as a shock. It’s 30 years too soon.”

Mrs Lee, of Blewbury Road, said her husband died peacefully at home and had not been in pain in the weeks leading up to his death.

She added: “Andy was very brave. He lived life to the full and was always very generous and kind and I think that has been reflected in the number of cards we have received – there wasn’t a bad bone in his body and he was a big man with a big heart.”

The 51-year-old father-of-four was treated for a malignant melanoma on his right arm four years ago, but the cancer returned. In January, Mr Lee needed an operation to remove a tumour on his arm, and a body scan revealed that the cancer had spread to his liver, lungs and spine.

Mrs Lee added: “Andy knew lots of people from his work but he also had a Harley Davidson motorbike and made lots of friends when he toured with the bike around Austria and Iceland.”

Mrs Lee said her two sons Jake, 17, and Adam, 15, would carry the coffin with Vikki Agnew, 26, Mr Lee’s daughter from his first marriage, and three family friends.

The funeral will be followed by a service at Oxford Crematorium and a gathering at the Shillingford Bridge Hotel, Shillingford.

In June, Jake, a sixth former at St Birinus School in Didcot, joined four family friends to do a tandem skydive, raising more than £8,000 for Cancer Research UK. Jake raised more than £3,300.