Community grieves for footballing dad killed by cough fit

HUNDREDS lined the streets of a West Lothian village to mourn a popular amateur footballer who died following a coughing fit.

Doctors said Rab McKennan, 33, died suddenly from asphyxiation.

His body was found in bed by his wife Sylvia, who said his death had come as a huge shock.

The father-of-two had played football for several local teams and travelled the world with the Tartan Army.

Some of the Blackridge man's friends and colleagues couldn't get into his funeral on Friday, as more than 400 people arrived to pay their respects.

Mrs McKennan said she hadn't expected such a crowd at Blackridge Church, but that it was touching to see how many people had cared about her husband.

She said: "There were 400 at the funeral – half of them didn't get in the church.

"They had to shut the door because of the traffic noise and half the people had to stand outside."

She said she was convinced that it was a coughing fit that had killed her husband as he suffered from asthma.

"It's such a shock. I just keep thinking it's a dream. It was really sudden," she said.

Mr McKennan met Sylvia, 30, through friends and the couple married at Gretna Green on November 9, 2001.

They had two children, Natalie, eight, and five-year-old Rachel.

Mrs McKennan said: "He was a great dad.

"As a person he was a bit of a joker. Everything got turned into a joke, but anything that needed done he would do it. He'd do anything for anyone. He had a lot of friends."

Mr McKennan was well known in Blackridge, having lived there all his life with parents Alex and Hannah, brothers Derek and Peter, and sister Linda, then later his wife and two daughters.

He worked at West Lothian Council's roads department, and Guildyhaugh Depot in Bathgate was closed on Friday as a mark of respect.

His father Alex said: "The church was full. And there were even more people at the cemetery afterwards.

"They shut the full Guildyhaugh Depot for the day.

"Most of the boys he worked with were in the Scotland Travel Club and they were all there."

Football was a passion of Mr McKennan's and he had played from a young age.

His wife described him as "a diehard Scotland fan" who travelled all over the world following the national football side.

She said: "He would go with workmates to Spain, Wales, Belgium – all over. He was a member of the Tartan Army and used to follow Scotland home and away."

His own sporting success began when he played with Armadale Sports Club at under-ten level.

After several years with the West Lothian League side, he had brief spells at Salvesen Boys Club and Links United in Edinburgh, then moved to Dalziel Boys Club in Airdrie with whom he later won a Scottish Cup medal at under-15 level.

He went on to play with Bathgate's Eastern Villa AFC before spending six years playing for local side Blackridge Amateur Football Club in the Lothian Premier Division.

His success was no surprise to his father, who says the family had a long history of talented players, including Mr McKennan's great-uncle, Peter "Ma Ba" McKennan, who played for Scotland, as well as Partick Thistle, Middlesbrough, West Brom and finally as player-manager for Coleraine.