Family and friends honour beloved Blackpool animal-lover Bailey Lister at 'beautiful' funeral service
“It was a beautiful service.”
Family and friends of a late Fylde coast animal-lover who died last month have said that his funeral was a ‘lovely tribute’, with Blackpool Tower lit up in his honour.
Bailey Lister, 22, was tragically found dead in May of this year after suffering an online campaign of 'abuse' and 'vitriol' which friends claim lasted for month, with those closest to Bailey insisting that the criticism escalated around the time when Bailey was evicted from land in Hambleton which he used to run his charity Hugo's Small Animal Sanctuary.
A well-known animal-lover, Bailey founded Hugo's Small Animal Sanctuary when he was just a teenager and ran it from a stable block in Hambleton. The North Shore-raised young man offered a refuge for unwanted small pets such as hamsters, guinea pigs and rabbits as well as birds.
Having set up his sanctuary when he was just 18, Bailey was originally inspired after he rescued a rat called Hugo as a child, which drove him on to work full-time saving other small animals. However, following his eviction from the Hambleton site, he had been forced to wind down the operation and find homes for the animals in his care.
Wendy Mulela, who runs the Homeward Bound animal sanctuary, said at the time: "It was no secret that Bailey had suffered a huge amount of abuse online and it is no secret that he took his life. His mental health was not good and he was under a tremendous amount of pressure. Dealing with all that and the abuse as well was too much for him."
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Following Bailey’s funeral at Keighley Crematorium, Wendy - who knew Bailey since he was a student at Myerscough agricultural college - said: "It was a beautiful service. Bailey's sister Millie gave the eulogy and it was lovely.
“There was also a lovely tribute video from the family featuring clips of him as a baby and growing up alongside animals and of Bailey just being his wonderful quirky self. The crematorium was absolutely packed, it was standing-room only, which is tribute to Bailey.”
On Friday night, Blackpool Tower was also lit up in honour of Bailey.