Emotional procession planned near Shrewsbury for crash victim's final journey
An emotional procession is being organised for the funeral of road crash victim Callum Powell, his family and friends have announced.
Callum, aged 24, was a Morrisons supermarket delivery driver from Ruyton-XI-Towns, who died as a result of a crash on the A5 near Nesscliffe on January 23.
His funeral is being held this Saturday morning.
Sophie Rickman, a friend of the family, said: "A family funeral procession will be held from Callum’s house in Ruyton-XI-Towns, following along the A5 past the crash site and then past Nesscliffe services."
Friends and associates have been invited to go to Nesscliffe services on the A5 and join from there in time for 9.45am.
The procession will end at Shrewsbury Town Football Club in Oteley Road for those not attending the funeral. The family and only close friends will go on to Emstrey Crematorium for a private ceremony to celebrate Callum's life, to be followed by a wake at the football ground.
"We would like to invite everybody to join the funeral procession," said Sophie. "Cal would love to see us shut down the roads of Shrewsbury!"
Callum had been a much-loved member of the 10PMClub car meet group and Callum's friends are inviting anybody who knew him, whether close or not to join the procession.
"We would like to invite anybody who would like to join, regardless of how close you were, or even knew him at all to join in the procession.
"Cal’s family has requested any make, colour, age, model car to join in."
The meeting point will be at the Nesscliffe service station at roughly 9.45am on Saturday. As the procession goes past, cars will follow behind, leading from the service station.
"They would love to see a big turnout and see people make a lot of noise for Cal," said Sophie. "Please be respectful and kind.
"Please don’t be afraid to join in, even if you didn’t know Cal at all. We would all love to see the number of people willing to give Cal the proper send-off he deserves."
A live stream of the funeral will be made available only to people who knew Callum at the Sovereign Suite at Montgomery Waters Meadow.
Once capacity has been reached in the Sovereign Suite mourners have been invited to gather in the car park to pay their respects.
Callum is survived by his parents Sandra and Tony and his sister Rachel. Donations have been invited to support Asthma UK and Diabetes UK.
Hundreds of members of the 10PMClub turned up at Meole Brace Car Park in Shrewsbury at the end of January to pay tribute to their friend and fellow car fan.
A man was arrested on suspicion of causing death by dangerous driving and released on bail following the crash.
More than £5,000 has been raised for Callum's family with an appeal on the Go Fund Me website here: https://www.gofundme.com/f/xaywp-callums-family?.