Family sell pets for funeral cash

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Three Cambridgeshire teenagers left orphaned when their mother died are selling their possessions, including three pets, to pay a funeral bill.

Jayne McCourt, 51, from Whittlesey, died in her sleep while suffering from a chest infection on 1 November.

Her children, Troy, 17, Rory, 15 and Alice, 14, are being looked after by their aunts in Riddings, Derbyshire.

Their father Brian died two years ago, and the children were unable to pay the £2,500 funeral costs.

The McCourt children have so far raised about £300 from the sale of their family pets, three spaniels.

Mr McCourt died two years ago at the age of 56, from stomach cancer.

Both their aunts, Yasmein Green from Riddings and Joanne Cumbridge from Chesterfield, are on benefits and, despite contributing £500 of their savings towards the costs, are unable to find the full amount.

Grants are available for help with funeral costs from the Department for Work and Pensions but only once a bill has been issued by the undertaker.

The McCourts say the undertakers dealing with them demanded full payment before issuing the bill.

The stuff wasn't really important, mum was more important Alice McCourt

Mark Adams, spokesman for Anglia Co-op Funerals, in Stanground, Cambridgeshire, confirmed he had requested full payment up front.

"We do not always request full payment but in this instance it is the offer we have made to the family."

Mr Adams added that the £2,515 cost was just above average for a funeral.

Teenager Alice McCourt said: "They [the funeral directors] wanted all the money up front so we had to sell everything.

"The stuff wasn't really important, mum was more important."

Items being put up for sale include computer games consoles and furniture from the family home.

Her brother Troy added: "I don't believe in council burials, all they do is put them in a hole and that's it... I would like for my mum to go properly.

"We've got all these lovely things but they're not needed.

"The things we do need are family and now money to pay for the funeral and all the other expenses."

An undertaker has now offered to carry out the funeral without being paid upfront.

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Rory, Alice and Troy McCourt want to give their mother a proper send-off