A HEARTBROKEN widow has paid a moving tribute to her brave husband who has lost his 20-year battle with a rare disease.

Lindsay Irvine, 31, said John died suddenly but peacefully at their home in Kirkintilloch from auto-immune disease Wegener's Granulomatosis.

John's funeral, which will feature a humanist service, was taking place this morning at Daldowie Crematorium, in Uddingston.

And in line with John's final wish, it will be a funeral with a difference.

Lindsay said: "There's no black to be worn. Everyone is to wear colourful clothes. John had it all organsied before he went."

£16m hospice set to have huge impact

THE Big Build is the Evening Times-backed appeal to build a new hospice for Glasgow. The hospice, which will care for people with cancer and terminal illnesses, will have a huge impact on the patients and families, like John's, who use the vital facility. Based in the grounds of Stobhill Hospital, the facility will feature single occupancy bedrooms with en suite bathrooms and will allow piped oxygen to every bedside. The hospice will cost £16million to build. Why not help raise funds by holding a charity event or attending a fundraising event like the Glasgow Brain Game, the glamorous Great Daffodil Ball or a variety of other events. Read features, stories, news and updates at www.bigbuild.org.uk or follow the appeal progress in the Evening Times. For more information or to donate, call 0141 531 1383.

John, 32, had planned every detail of his funeral, down to the choice of music.

"The song being played is The Proclaimers' 500 Miles, because John could never walk that far."

Lindsay added: "It's not a funeral, it's a celebration of John's short life."

Since we first told John's story in February, his state of health had been on a gradual decline.

Lindsay admitted things had been tough for her husband. She said: "It was becoming more and more of a struggle for him. The end was a blessing to John."

Ten weeks ago John's health took a turn for the worse. During the night he stopped breathing and was rushed into the Marie Curie hospice at Springburn.

His oxygen levels had dropped to dangerous levels. Lindsay added: "The hospice looked after him amazingly well. They sent him home with the understanding that we knew it was going to happen again. They said he definitely wouldn't be here at the end of the year so we just kept going as normal.

"When he got out of the hospice he bought a new puppy. He wanted to have a puppy before he died. And he bought a new telly and his spirits were really high."

Last Tuesday night, however, John admitted to Lindsay he was feeling ill. She said: "He told me he wasn't feeling great.

"He just went to bed and was sitting beside me. Then he just slipped away."

"He always made it clear that he wanted to die in his house."

Life had been one long battle for John. Hooked up to an oxygen machine 24-hours a day, he was diagnosed as terminally ill with Wegener's Granulomatosis, a form of vasculitis - inflammation of the blood vessels and an auto-immune disease - which means the body's immune system attacks its own body tissues.

John has lived under the shadow of Wegener's for the past 20 years. Before he died, he told us: "It's affected my lungs to the state that there's not a thing the hospital can do for me."

Lindsay said: Wegener's is one nasty disease."

John was pragmatic right to the end. In February, he told us: "You never know when it's your time but when your time's up, your time's up."

John's condition wasn't helped by a profound fear of hospitals. It was a phobia which has its roots in his childhood.

When he was just 12, John found out he had Wegener's and was taken to hospital.

John told us: "In those days I was classed as an adult. My mum wanted me to go into Yorkhill but they refused and put me in a chest ward. There were people dying all around me.

"Within a couple of nights, three folk died. All I remember was having the curtains drawn shut and the sound of the trolleys taking the bodies away."

Despite being largely housebound, John and Lindsay were well-known faces at the Marie Curie hospice in Springburn, where John enjoyed weekly aromatherapy and massage sessions.

John told us: "It's good to get out and about and go somewhere different."

The couple, who were childhood sweethearts, only celebrated their first wedding anniversary in February. Because of John's condition, the happy couple had been forced to miss their wedding reception and go home after they were married to celebrate with close friends and family.

John and Lindsay were also keen supporters of the Evening Times-backed Big Build appeal to raise money for a new £16million hospice at Stobhill Hospital.

Lindsay also paid tribute to the hard work and dedication of the staff. She said: "I want people to know what the Marie Curie hospice has done for John."