A Redruth vicar has implored people to come to the funeral of a man who died with no friends or relatives.

Terry Filer died at the age of 85 and left behind money for his own funeral.

He loved to collect oversized belt buckles and watch straps, and once said that his next of kin would be the "ladies in blue" who looked after him in his old age.

Caspar Bush, the vicar at St Euny Church in Redruth, was moved when he received the booking.

He told the Packet: "At the end there was this very bland line which did something to me. It said: 'This gentleman has no relatives and nothing is known of his life'. I just thought 'how very sad'."

Caspar posted on the church's social media page asking if anyone could help by coming along to the funeral.

He said: "I was hoping we might get a half dozen keen local people."

But the post was quickly shared nearly 300 times, and now Caspar says "I have no idea who's going to turn up."

The funeral, at 1.30pm today (Friday February 9), will be attended by an ITV film crew, and Bray's and K's in Redruth will supply 75 pasties for those in attendance.

Caspar said: "It's lovely that people are rallying around and giving this guy a send-off."

The vicar hopes that people can learn something from Terry's passing and take action to help people in their communities who might be suffering from loneliness.

He said: "Terry stand for a lot of people in our community that have no friends or are lonely. I hope that this will make people think 'is there a Terry in our road? Is there someone who can knock on their door?'

"If there's some smaller good that can come out of a bad situation like this, that could be it."