A former landlord who created a dream life in the sun for himself and his family has died just four months after arriving in Lanzarote.

Simon Dearden - Sid to his family and friends and a former landlord of the Old Star at Steeton - died of blood poisoning after falling ill with a kidney infection aged just 40.

Speaking from the Canary Islands, his grieving wife Linda, 40, said: "We'd been coming to the island for ten years for holidays - five or six times a year. We fell in love with it.

"We always said we wanted to live out here and it was Sid's dream.

"He was loving it here. It was brilliant and we had just found a piece of land to build our own home."

Mr Dearden became ill on Sunday morning and was admitted to hospital where his condition deteriorated.

"The doctors couldn't have done enough for him - they were one-and-a-half hours trying to revive him. They were crying when he died," said Mrs Dearden.

The couple and their 13-year-old son Christopher moved to the village of Tias in October 2002 and Mr Dearden set up a building business with a partner.

He had run the Old Star at Steeton for more than three years before emigrating.

A former pupil of Bingley Grammar School, he had worked as a roofer and also as a bar cellarman at the Midland Hotel in Bingley.

He had also worked for a time at the Robin Hood in Silsden and before taking over the Old Star was manager at a public house in Rastrick.

He was an avid Leeds fan, and a reception is to be held in the banqueting hall at Elland Road on Thursday following his funeral at Nab Wood, Bingley.

Mr Dearden leaves a daughter Sarah, 22, mother and father and three brothers and a sister.