TRIBUTES have been paid to a former Grimsby Town player who has died after a long illness.

Shaun Mawer, once the Mariner's Young Player Of The Year, died in Hull Royal Infirmary on Saturday, aged 50.

He was diagnosed with kidney failure in 1992 and had been on dialysis ever since, despite his dad, Maurice, donating a kidney to him in 1994.

On June 22 Mr Mawer was admitted to hospital with a problem caused by the dialysis and later died.

Paying tribute, his wife Kay, 50, said: "He would do anything for anybody, especially his family. He was very generous and thought the world of his children and grandchildren."

Mr Mawer, who was born in Ulceby, where he lived for most of his life, made his Grimsby Town debut in September 1977, in a 1-0 defeat at Watford.

He had risen through the youth team ranks at Blundell Park, helping Town's juniors win the NIL Challenge Cup in 1977 as a winger, before converting to full-back.

Emerging with the likes of Kevin Drinkell, Tony Ford, and Terry Donovan, Mr Mawer was named Young Player Of The Year for the 1977/78 season.

Sadly, he was forced to retire aged just 22 following a serious knee injury suffered in a game against Gillingham in 1980.

Maurice said: "The injury hit him hard, as he had been at Grimsby for about seven years, playing for the juniors, the colts, the reserves and then the first team."

Following his retirement, Mr Mawer got a job at Humber Graving Dock. After that closed, his father started a new business called Maurice Mawer engineering Ltd, which eventually was based at Immingham.

A marine engineer, Mr Mawer worked for the company until he died.

Kay, who met her husband at Clouds nightclub in Cleethorpes 34 years ago, said he was extremely hard working.

She said: "He was very stubborn – but in a good way. I don't know how he carried on going to work, but he did."

The couple married 31 years ago, and have three daughters – Kerri-Dee, 28, Nikki, 26, and Carli, 22. They have two grandsons, Harvey, 5, and Ashton, 3.

Kay's brother Neil Beacock, said: "I can remember going with Kay to watch Shaun play and although I was only young, I seem to remember people saying he had quite a promising career until injury put an end to it.

"I can remember him coming round to our house and all my friends coming in to get autographs."

Maurice said: "When he was a kid at Barton School he was very mischievous. I remember taking him fishing because he had been wishing and wishing me to take him for ages.

"I set him up and left him for three hours. When I returned he had 20lbs of cod!

Ex-Town player Dave Boylen played with Mr Mawer at Blundell Park.

He recalled: "We played a practice match and Dave Worthington – who was renowned for being a hard man in the Football League – was marking Shaun.

"The ball came to Shaun and Dave closed him down and then went into the kill to get the ball.

"Shaun was not having it and raised his elbow and caught Dave slap bang on his nose and broke it in two places.

"Well, the sight of Dave going off the pitch holding his nose – we all fell about laughing.

"In a nutshell there was one of the hardest men in football holding a broken nose and there was one of the nicest men looking so embarrassed by what he had done.

"When we heard some years ago that Shaun was needing help, we sorted out a game at Littlefield Lane which was a match between all of Shaun's ex-team mates against a Hull side.

"It raised a decent amount of money for a wonderful person who deserved the backing of his mates that played with him at Grimsby Town."

A spokesman for Grimsby Town said: "We are saddened to hear of the death of Shaun Mawer who was a promising player for Grimsby Town in the late 1970s.

"Our condolences go out to his family."

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