Daughter of Warrington aid worker Paul Urey says getting his body home would bring 'closure'

The daughter of an aid worker from Warrington who was reported to have died while being detained by Russian-backed separatists in Ukraine, says the repatriation of her father’s body will give her family closure.

Paul died in July and since then his daughter Chelsea Coman, 20, has raised more than £8,000 on GoFundMe to bring his body home.

She and her 17-year-old sister Courtney were told by the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office that they would need to pay nearly £10,000 in repatriation costs.

The human rights ombudsperson for the Moscow-supported leadership in Donetsk has previously said Mr Urey, 45, died in July of chronic illnesses and stress.

He had type 1 diabetes as well as a heart condition but was denied access to medication around eight weeks before his death, his family told the PA news agency.

“He doesn’t deserve to be out there at the minute,” Chelsea said.

“It would set our mind at ease to be able to lay him to rest and know that he’s not in a different country still suffering even though he’s died.

“We would get closure.”The family have thanked people who've contributed to their fund for repatriating Paul's body which has already raised over .

Chelsea said "It’s very overwhelming because a lot of strangers across the world have taken the time to write these messages and send money over to help us, and they don’t even know us.

“Without the GoFundMe and all these strangers giving us the money to help us bring dad home … I don’t think we would have possibly been able to do it.

“We’ve never seen that kind of money in our lives.”An FCDO spokesperson said: “We have supported Paul’s family throughout this ordeal and will continue to work with the Ukrainian authorities to get him home.”

“Our thoughts remain with the Urey family at this difficult time.

“The FCDO is unfortunately not able to pay for the repatriation of British nationals who have died overseas.”