MOVING tributes to the courage of a gifted young artist who lay paralysed for six years before his death last week, were paid at his funeral yesterday.

The 200 mourners who packed into a County Durham church to remember 31-year-old Wayne Neilson were friends and relatives who knew him as a fun-loving and football-mad young man, who had inherited a great artistic talent from his father, Alan.

As a lone piper led his coffin into the church where he was christened, St Andrew's, at South Church, near Bishop Auckland, the largely young congregation heard of the bravery shown by Wayne and his family.

Wayne's plight had captured the hearts of the racing world, who were among hundreds of well-wishers who helped to ease his situation.

The last drawing Wayne completed before illness struck was an exquisite drawing of 11-times champion jockey Pat Eddery, aboard the horse he hailed as "the best ever", the 1986 Prix de L'Arc de Triomphe winner Dancing Brave.

Desperate to bring their son home from hospital, Mr Neilson, and his wife Jacqueline, used the money they raised selling hundreds of copies of the picture to help build him a special suite behind their house in St Andrew's Road, Bishop Auckland.

Father Robert McTeer, chaplain at Tindale Crescent Hospital, singled out Mrs Neilson for her devotion to Wayne, whose illness had been caused by a rare tonsillitis virus.

He said: "She gave the past six years of her life to her son. It is a wonderful example of the love that a mother has for her children. She has been a mother 110 per cent.

"Wayne was a talented and gifted young man. His stunning drawing of Pat Eddery and Dancing Brave will be a lasting memory for many of a brave young man who showed great dignity in illness and in death.

"For Wayne, the last six years had been hard. He had a lot of pain and a lot of suffering, but he was extremely brave. It was his concern for others, his mother and his family, which has given them the strength to carry on."

l The Northern Echo was invited by Wayne's family to attend his funeral.