Dad-of-two Chris Brown, 37, nicknamed ‘Browny’, tragically lost his life in a devastating motorbike crash as he rode home from work and suffered critical injuries in the collision on April 7
A devoted husband and father who tragically died as he rode his motorbike home from work was laid to rest as hundreds of mourners and fellow bikers came together to celebrate the remarkle life he lived.
Dad-of-two Chris Brown, 37, suffered critical injuries when his Harley Davidson motorbike was caught in a horror collision in Wallsend on April 7 . Chris died in hospital three days later, leaving behind his devastated wife Stacey and his two daughters Harlo-Rose, 12, and Haylan, 7. Today as family and friends came together at South Shields Crematorium to say their final goodbyes, more than a thousand motorbikes created a powerful and emotional procession, accompanying Chris on his final journey. A proud member of The Hells Angels Motorcycle Club, Chris was honoured by riders who travelled from across the country – and even further afield – to pay tribute to one of their own.
“This is what we do,” one biker who had travelled from Northampton to pay his respects said, while others had come from Wales and Northern Ireland to as far as Amsterdam, Switzerland, Belgium, Madrid and the Canary Islands. It was a fitting tribute to a man who was described in the service as someone whose smile “lit up the room”, and who had a generous nature that “knew no bounds”.
As Chris’ coffin was carried into the crematorium, with ‘Hells Angels’ emblazoned on its side, the brikers chanted “Affa!” – the Hells Angels slogan meaning Angels Forever, Forever Angels – with crowds bursting into applause. It was said of Chris during the emotional service: “He did more in 37 years than others have done in three lifetimes.”
The beloved dad, who was a supervisor at Smulders in Wallsend, was described as having: “Lived life at full throttle – a life not measured in years, but measured in miles. He wasn’t just a biker, he was a legend in motion. A soul that was built for the road. His love of motorbikes wasn’t just a passion; it was his way of life.”
The celebrant added: “Chris would always say, when his time was up, he wanted to go on his bike. Despite this, he still had everything to live for.”
The Hells Angels wore sashes on their signature leather vests bearing Chris’ nickname Browny. The large turnout at his funeral meant traffic was halted through the Tyne Tunnel to allow the long procession to pass through. “He was full of integrity, courage, and he really embraced the true brotherhood of what we’ve got in this club,” one of his fellow bikers from the Northumberland charter of Hells Angels said in a moving speech. “His class, and his style, his finesse, it was there in bucketfuls.”
The story of Chris’ life told during the ceremony drew both laughter and tears from mourners. Even as a child he “had no fear”, with his passion for bikes starting at the tender age of seven – but his wife and his girls were what his “world revolved around” and where he found his “greatest joy”, the celebrant said.
Chris’ wife Stacey previously said of her husband: “Nobody had a bad word to say about Chris. He was such a kind person, he would do anything for anyone. And he was such a family man too, especially to me and our children. Anybody who met him, this is why it has properly shook the town, because anybody who met him loved him. He was a proper, genuine, nice person.”
Stacey has decided to take on the Three Peaks Challenge on Saturday, June 21, which is also the Summer Solstice, in Chris’s memory, fundraising for Newcastle Upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Charity. At the time of writing, more an an incredible £16,500 has been raised, demonstrating how very loved Chris was by all those who knew him.