A tea shop owner has died of meningitis at the age of 34 after a battle by hospital staff to save his life.

And his grieving partner has told of how she hoped for a miracle as Bob Whiteley was on a ventilator, fighting the deadly disease.

Mr Whiteley succumbed to bacterial meningitis four days after being admitted to Airedale General Hospital at Steeton. His partner Linda Bushell, who ran a Haworth tea shop with Mr Whiteley, has praised nurses and doctors for their non-stop battle. But medics had to turn off Mr Whiteley's life support machine when his heart stopped beating.

"They could do no more. We were told that if he survived he would have been a vegetable.

"I had hoped for a miracle, but I think the miracles were all used up. I stayed with him all night holding and stroking his hand and talking to him.

"I told him that when he got out I would marry him. We had been planning to marry but not just yet.

"We were grasping at straws, hoping for some change, but it never came," said Miss Bushell, who also suffered a diabetic attack and fell in the hospital when her sugar levels dropped.

Mr Whiteley died last Thursday, September 12, with his family around him after being admitted to hospital the previous Saturday with a severe headache.

Miss Bushell said: "The doctors and nurses in intensive care were wonderful. They couldn't have done any more. They never stopped trying.

"But it's such a shock and a tragedy to lose someone so quickly."

The couple have been running Ye Olde Bronte Tea Room in Main Street, Haworth, for two years.

Miss Bushell had always dreamt of running a tea shop and the couple started the business after Mr Whiteley gave up his job as a security guard.

He became ill on Saturday, September 7 and was admitted to hospital with a severe headache. He had also been suffering from sinusitis.

He was given pain killers and antibiotics and on the Sunday seemed to rally. His headaches had eased, she explained.

But the following day his conditioned worsened and he became semi-conscious and he was rushed to the intensive care unit where he was given a brain scan and put on a ventilator.

Mr Whiteley leaves his parents, Joan and Brian Whiteley, and a brother and sister.

His funeral was taking place today at Haworth parish church.