Tributes have been paid to a ‘gentle giant’ who died in Benidorm having a happy holiday with families coping with disabilities.

Great-grandad Mick Stead was on the second day of the trip to the resort when he collapsed from a heart attack.

The 72-year-old, of Odsal, was on holiday with his wife Sandra, 62 and his 41-year-old step-son Robert, who has learning disabilities, when tragedy struck.

Mr Stead was a member of Bradford Integrated Activities Challenge (BIAC), a support and friendship group that organises days and trips away for people with disabilities and their families.

It had been the group’s first foreign holiday for years.

The pensioner, who used to teach woodwork at Bradford Cathedral Centre and later at a Keighley skills charity, had been enjoying his first day pushing members’ wheelchairs, enjoying the local market and hotel entertainment before it happened.

His widow Sandra, who is the group’s secretary, said there had been no warning signs apart from him getting out of breath as he pushed one of the wheelchairs up a hill earlier that day.

"We’d had a roast beef and Yorkshire pud dinner at the hotel and then did a quiz. I thought he’d gone back to our room later to watch football, but when I went up, I saw our group chairman outside the lift trying to resuscitate someone on the floor – it was Mick. There was nothing more anyone could do.”

She added: “My Mick was an amazing man. He was a gentle giant, always putting other people before himself – he spent his life doing for other people.”

Mrs Stead said: “Mick never thought he was anything special, but we all knew differently. He was a very special man and very much loved.”

BIAC chairman Richard Tearle: “We were all there in Benidorm as one big family. Mick made a great impact on the group – we have lost a great asset and a wonderful friend.”

Mr Stead leaves four children, four step-children, 12 grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.

His funeral is at St James’s Church, Thornton, on Wednesday, at 1.30pm followed by cremation at Rawdon.

Donations in his memory will go to BIAC. Anyone who wants to send a donation to the group, which is affiliated to Mencap, can send a cheque to PO Box 1364, Bradford, BD5 5EG.