A man who achieved his dream of living in Lanzarote, in the Canary Islands, has died aged 40 within four months of setting up home there.

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

Speaking from the island, 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 more 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 last October, 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 worked as a manager in a public house in Rastrick.

He was an avid Leeds Utd fan, and a reception is to be held in the banqueting hall at Elland Road on Thursday, following his funeral at Nab Wood, Bingley. More than 200 people are expected to attend.

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