A WOMAN'S traumatic ten-week battle to get her brother cremated has finally come to an end.

Robert Banks died from a suspected heart attack in South Africa on March 10, but international red tape and a row over money prevented his funeral taking place.

Although he emigrated several years ago, Mr Banks remained a British citizen and his sister, Lucy Dawson, has been trying to make the funeral arrangements.

Mrs Dawson, from Newton Aycliffe in County Durham, first encountered problems in obtaining authorisation for family friend Doreen Henderson to take care of the arrangements on her behalf.

Once that was completed, seven weeks after Mr Banks died, the funeral directors asked for money up front.

Mrs Dawson sent off a cheque for £520, which failed to arrive, then a bankers' draft, which also did not turn up. They did eventually reach the funeral director - after they had been cancelled.

Another bankers' draft was accepted, but Mrs Dawson had to pay an extra £30 because the exchange rate had changed in the three weeks since she sent the original cheque.

Yesterday, Mrs Dawson finally got the news she was waiting to hear - that her brother had been cremated.

She said: "I'm over the moon because at last he's going to have some dignity. He's been lying there for ten weeks, and that's absolutely disgusting.

"He was such a proud man and to be left lying like that is terrible. What if he'd had no family, what would have happened then?"

Mrs Dawson, who now aims to bring the ashes back to be scattered in Darlington, is trying to trace her cousins, Melvyn, Lynsey and Billy Hill, who had been living in the Tyne and Wear area. She can be contacted on (01325) 315288.