FORMER heavyweight champion Frank Bruno has told of his devastation at losing his mother – one of his biggest supporters in and out of the ring.
The British legend’s mother Lynette died on Monday aged 86, while the retired boxer was working in the Far East.
His mum, who always insisted on calling him Franklin, was his “rock” and supported him in a life-long battle with mental health issues.
Frank suffers from bipolar and campaigns to break the stigma and raise awareness of mental health conditions.
He recently became single after a four-year romance ended.
Talking to the Sunday People about his mother he said: “Losing my mum is devastating. She was one of my best friends and one of my biggest supporters and as a family we are all going to miss her terribly.”
He shared a memory of when he visited her after he became world champion.
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He said: “We all went back to see mum at her house not long after winning the world championship.
“She was making a big Caribbean stew, and I quickly could smell the food as I walked in the door so I went racing into the kitchen just for a spook or two maybe three.
“She wouldn’t let me near it. There I was, world champion, and my mum was still telling me off, calling me Franklin in front of my friends.”
Lynette, a pentecostal preacher from Jamaica, had Frank with her husband Robert, from the Dominican Republic, after the settled in west London in the 1950s.
She kept the boxer on the straight and narrow as he sought to be the best.
As a key person in his struggles with his mental health conditions, it came as an extra blow that she died the day before the latest instalment on his promotion of mental health awareness was broadcast.
The 54-year-old has been sectioned three times and is now using his experiences to help others.
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