Donald Winters

A BIG Issue seller with Parkinson’s Disease was given a moving send-off this week by his carers and best friend.

Donald Winters, who lived in Fortess Road, Tufnell Park, died in the Royal Free Hospital following a heart attack in July.

The 56-year-old was for many years the Big Issue seller in Regent’s Park Road, Primrose Hill, and outside Camden Town tube station.

A friend, David Jameson, said: “He never complained about his Parkinson’s. He just got on with it. He had no ambitions to be anything in particular. He liked simple pleasures – the TV, music. He had a great sense of humour, very cheerful.

“He used to tell this joke: ‘Why are people living in Hampstead not buried in Highgate cemetery? Because they’re not dead, they’re still living in Hampstead.’ He was my best friend.”

The funeral at Golders Green Crematorium on Monday was attended by five carers and Mr Jameson.

Born in the old Royal Free hospital, in Islington, Mr Winters went to Thornhill Primary School, Islington, before moving to Wimbledon. He moved to Camden, to live above the laundry in Malden Road, after his mother died while he was young. He later lost contact with his family, his friend and carers said.

Mr Winters used to drink in the Robert Peel, Queen’s Crescent, the Fiddlers Elbow in Kentish Town and South­ampton Arms, in Gospel Oak.

Around seven years ago, he developed Parkinson’s, at which point he advertised in the New Journal for a carer.

Carer Tracey Burns said: “I applied for the job and he chose me out of 50 people. He was in Burghley Road at the time. He’d had a fall and hurt his collar bone. I saw him two times a day, seven days a week. ­

“In the end, I got him into his own home. But the Parkinson’s was getting worse and we had to get more carers in.

“He was like a brother to me. We’d take him to Southend, or go and sit outside a café in the summer. He loved listening to music on the PC. He had a terrific sense of humour. He could take a joke.”