More than £21,000 raised for family of South Shields master barber Allan Stone following sudden death

Allan Stone, the much-loved South Tyneside Master Barber and dad tragically died on Thursday, January 28 at the age of 46.

Friends, family and the barbering world have united in grief, with industry experts hailing his skills, and enthusiasm for his profession – with hundreds of tributes also being left outside his Stoney’s Barber Shop and online.

Now, a fundraiser has been set up by Allan’s close friend Sean Shabilla, along with his partner and family to help support Allan’s family following his shock death.

Sean, who lived above Allan’s barber shop from birth with his mam and siblings, initially set out to raise £10,000 but is “absolutely over the moon” to see that donations have since doubled to total of £21,575 after hundreds of patrons helped donate towards the cause.

The money raised will go towards Allan’s funeral and other long-term costs to help his family.

Sean, 27 said: “My whole family grew up with Allan, he was loved by my whole family – my brother, sister and mam. When I was born we lived above his shop and he was like a father to me and supported me in whatever journey I went on.

"Myself, my partner Emily and daughter Mina wanted to help Allan’s family out with financial costs, I wanted to help take some of the pressure off.”

Allan supported Sean over the years and while growing up even sponsored him while boxing for Horsley Hill in 2011.

Describing Allan as ‘happy’, ‘bubbly’ and ‘reassuring’, Sean added: “We are absolutely over the moon to have raised this amount of money, but it’s the least we could do because I know Allan would have done exactly the same for us.

"If anybody was going to have this amount of money raised for them, it would have been Allan – The fact we have reached and surpassed our target is testament to him and how much he was loved and respected.”

You can donate to Allan’s fund here.

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