THE family of a man who died in a shop in Leominster has paid tribute to an "extremely generous" brother.

John Blades died in The Co-operative in Dishley Street on Friday after he suffered a cardiac arrest while shopping.

The 71-year-old from Kingsland was pronounced dead at the scene.

His brother, Antony Blades, who lives in Hartlepool, paid tribute to his brother.

He said: "He was an extremely generous person. He was actually at the store every Friday morning as he would collect shopping for an elderly neighbour.

"He would give you the shirt off his back if he could. He was very generous with his time."

In February John had spent a week with Antony who had just undergone cancer treatment.

Antony said: "He was fit and healthy. He was health obsessed. He was very careful with his diet. This is a bolt from the blue."

John had lived in Kingsland for many years and lived by himself.

He was self-employed as an aircraft broker.

They were born in Scunthorpe and then their parents moved the family to a farm in Sussex in 1947.

Tony is a airline pilot and he said their interest in aircraft was born while at the farm as they were on the airline routes for Heathrow and a lot of aircraft were coming in over the farm.

John is survived by another brother called Adrian. Sadly his sister, Wendy, died in 2006 following a cardiac arrest.

Tony said John loved Herefordshire and tended to keep himself to himself.

A spokesman for the Co-op said: “Colleagues are extremely saddened and thoughts are with the family and friends during this very difficult time.”

An ambulance service spokeswoman said: "We were called at 12.20pm to reports of a cardiac arrest in the Co-operative in Dishley Street. One ambulance and a paramedic officer attended. There was a GP on scene also."

CPR was carried out prior to the arrival of crews and a defibrillator was also used. The spokeswoman added: "Sadly nothing could be done to save him and he was confirmed deceased by the GP on scene."

The shop was closed for around three hours.