AN ex-cricket star married to a Thai woman who tragically died in a Waitrose aged just 46 has paid tribute to his “loving” wife.

Duncan Pauline, 64, said he and his wife Wiyada were looking forward to retiring to her home country before her sudden death on Wednesday.

5

5

5

They had already bought a retirement home and planned to leave the UK in a couple of years, however Duncan will now have to return alone with Wiyada’s ashes.

Wiyada, who was known as ‘Lek’ to her friends – which means small in Thai – collapsed while shopping at the Waitrose in Esher High Street, Surrey.

Duncan told The Sun: “I’m absolutely devastated. She went out to Waitrose at about 5.15pm and then I got a call from one of her friends.

“I went up there expecting she’d had a knock on the head but not that she was dead.

“When I got there the police told me she had passed away.

“She had a cloth over her head and she looked very peaceful when they pulled the cloth off her head.

“She was only 46, it’s a shock that she could go so young. We’ve been married for 22 years and we were due to retire in a couple of years.

“She wanted to go back home to Thailand. We even bought a house in Thailand for our retirement.

“The sad thing is she won’t get to do that now.”

Duncan, head coach at Esher Cricket Club, said he will now have to take the ashes of his wife, who was a Buddhist, back to her family in Thailand.

Holding back his tears, he said: “That won’t be easy.

“I was the one who should have died, not her. I’m a lot older than her and I smoke and drink. I didn’t even think about her going first.”

Duncan said he and his wife had shared 22 brilliant years together.

SHE SAVED MY LIFE

She once saved his life when he ended up in Kingston Hospital with a life-threatening “flesh-eating” condition.

“I got an infection in my foot from a flesh-eating thing in 2014,” he said.

“They had to cut off my leg. I went into a coma and the doctors wanted to turn off the life-support machine.

“She pleaded with them to give me one more day. And during that last day, things started to work again in my body.

“I came out of a coma and I lived. If she hadn’t pleaded with the doctors to give me one more day I would have died.”

Wiyada helped care for Duncan, who now uses a wheelchair, after he lost his leg.

The pair lived together at Esher Cricket Club, where Wiyada would cook Thai food for members.

Paying tribute to his wife, Duncan, a former Surrey County Cricket Club player, said: “She was an all-round good person. Everyone loved her. She will be enormously missed.

“We hardly ever argued – even though we worked together all day.

“She loved cooking for people and she loved the cricket club. We have 750 kids here at the club and she really had fun with them.

“She was a giver. She was always happy and she was such a loving, generous and kind person. She had a tremendous smile.”

Duncan does not know the cause of his wife’s death.

Emergency crews had rushed to the supermarket in Esher, Surrey, at around 6pm on Wednesday after receiving calls of a “concern for safety” at the store.

Both the high street in the town and the Waitrose itself were closed as medics tried to save her life.

Tragically, despite their best efforts, she was pronounced dead at the scene.

At the time of the incident, Surrey Police issued an update to those in the area, saying: “We are currently on scene following a call to a concern for safety in Esher shortly after 6pm this evening (August 20).

“Waitrose on the high street has been closed, and there is a significant emergency services presence in the area as we deal with this incident.”

A spokesperson for Surrey Police said: “Officers were called to Waitrose on Esher High Street shortly after 6pm yesterday evening (August 20) by the South East Coast Ambulance Service, who were responding to a medical emergency at the location.

“Despite the best efforts of paramedics, a woman in her 40s died at the scene.

“Her next of kin have been informed. There was a significant emergency services presence in the area, including police, South East Coast Ambulance Service, and the Air Ambulance Charity Kent, Surrey, Sussex.

“Waitrose was closed to allow emergency services to carry out their work, but has since reopened.”

A Waitrose spokesperson said: “Our thoughts are with our customer’s family and loved ones.

“Our Partners acted quickly and offered support while the emergency teams arrived.

“We’re now making sure everyone is supported.”

5

5