Colleagues and mum pay tribute to 'wonderful friend' and son who died aged 40
Family and colleagues have paid warm tributes to a Wellington man whose sudden and unexpected death has left them in shock.
Martyn Haynes, aged 40, had been staying with his mum Karen when she was unable to rouse him at midday on Sunday, only a short while after they had chatted about having jacket potatoes for lunch.
Mr Haynes had been taking antibiotics and had been suffering from a headache but his death was completely unexpected.
Mum Karen said they were in a "horrible period" waiting for the coroner to tell them of his cause of death.
"The amount of love and support we have received from people has been overwhelming and I am getting strength from it," said Mrs Haynes, 67.
"From all the comments on social media it was obvious that people didn't simply know Martyn, they were friends.
"If he could do anything for anyone he would do it - he was very kind-hearted."
Martyn, who lived in Crown Street, was born on St George's Day 1981 and his mum says she used to refer to her pregnancy bump as "George" but settled on Martyn, which lead to lots of annoying spelling mistakes as people spelt his name with an 'i'. His mum and dad, Gary, 65, divorced but remain best friends.
Mrs Haynes said her son, who has an elder brother Stephen, 42, loved "music, music, music" and had such a good voice that he would be called on by his friends to win at karaoke competitions.
He was a former pupil at Thomas Telford School before training as a sound engineer at Sandwell College and getting a job in IT as a server network engineer in Birmingham.
Martyn was one of the longest serving volunteers at Wolverhampton radio station WCR FM having joined the station whilst still a teenager.
He was also the technical manager for the annual Ironbridge Gorge Brass Band Festival. The hugely popular event has raised tens of thousands of pounds for Severn Hospice.
Mr Haynes had been a director at WCR FM for the past nine years and would have turned 41 next month.
The Rev Chris Allen, who chairs the radio station, said: “He was a wonderful friend and beautiful human being.
"On top of his contribution to the station in terms of overseeing finance and his extensive IT skills, Martyn had a great sense of humour with his often sideways look at life.
"He never failed to make me smile. We are all numb at the loss of our friend and colleague, and cannot begin to imagine the pain for Martyn’s family, whom we hold in our hearts and prayers.”
Mr Allen will be leading the funeral for his friend, when arrangements can be made.
The station’s founder Pete Whitehouse, who introduced Mr Haynes to WCR FM, said: “He contributed so much to the station he loved. I’ll never forget Martyn’s strength of character and his wonderful smile. My sincere condolences to his family.”
In the succeeding 25 years he had become one of WCR’s most important figures behind the scenes, supporting both finance and information technology at the station which is based at Newhampton Arts Centre, in Newhampton Road East, Wolverhampton.
