Published Date: 16 October 2008 
HOLLYWOOD movie star Sean Bean brought a touch of silver screen sparkle to a colourful celebration of the life of campaigning Sheffield journalist Adrian Sudbury. 
Friends dressed in a rainbow of shades, Adrian’s mum Kay wore a patterned dress and yellow shoes, and his dad Keith wore a bright pink shirt as loved ones packed into Sheffield Cathedral to remember the 27-year-old with heartfelt tributes and readings. 

Adrian, who died in August after fighting leukaemia for 18 months, won plaudits around the world for spending his last few months raising awareness of bone marrow donation. 

Pop songs by Sheffield band the Arctic Monkeys, Take That, Bob Marley and even Chesney Hawkes brought smiles to the faces of friends who brushed away their tears to pay tribute to a remarkable young man. 

Sean Bean, accompanied to the service by his wife Georgina, delivered a reading ‘On Death’ by the Lebanese-American poet and philosopher Khalil Gibran. 

“You would know the secret of death,” he read. “But how shall you find it unless you seek it in the heart of life? Life and death are one, even as the river and the sea are one.” 

Bean had met Adrian at the Royal Hallamshire Hospital last year while launching an appeal to improve facilities for leukaemia patients, and since then they had kept in touch. 

He and Georgina joined the congregation in lighting candles as ‘Never Forget’ by Take That echoed around the cathedral walls.