North Tyneside bin man ‘Santa’ to be honoured with bin lorry procession after death aged 49

Tributes have been paid to a dedicated binman who brought joy to children at Christmas by going to work dressed as Santa Claus.

Craig Browell, from Wideopen, worked for North Tyneside Council’s waste collection service for 15 years. He had trained as a chef and during his culinary career he worked at Newcastle’s Theatre Royal and the Civic Centre’s banqueting suite.

His wife Angela Browell said he was a “brilliant” chef and his Sunday dinners were “lush”, but he was “born to be a garbage man” and “loved” his job. Each year he would dress up in a Santa costume for the two weeks leading up to Christmas and embraced the character so much that his daughter Willow, now seven, was convinced her father was “the real Santa”.

Sadly, on June 28, father-of-three Craig passed away at the age of 49, nearly four years after being diagnosed with multiple myeloma on December 23, 2020, which is a rare form of blood cancer.

Angela, 37, said: “Craig was absolutely crazy and always up for a laugh. If it was going to make someone laugh or smile, he would do it. He didn’t care if it made him look stupid or silly. If it was going to make someone feel happy, he would be up for anything.”

Angela believes Craig’s idea to dress up for work came from seeing local bus drivers wearing Santa costumes during the festive season. He bought a cheap Santa costume for his shift, but it kept ripping due to the strenuous nature of his role, and he would have to buy a new one every couple of days.

She said: “It was literally hanging on him until the end of the day and we went through a lot of these little thin suits because he would be lucky to last a few days. A few years ago he decided to get our neighbour, who is a seamstress, to make him a wool suit. It has the proper lapels and looked like a real Santa suit and it lasted him well.”

Angela added: “If you asked our daughter Willow who Santa was, she would always say her dad because she’s never known anything different than seeing her dad dressed as Santa. When you take your kids to see Santa, she would always say, ‘I know that’s not the real Santa because that’s not my dad.'”

Craig was featured on ChronicleLive in 2019 when he arrived at a little boy’s house with his wheelie bin trolley dressed as Santa and accompanied by his elves, fellow bin men Michael Fletcher and Craig Gallon. The aim was to surprise Theo James for his fifth birthday after his father contacted the council to ask about a special visit for his wheelie bin-obsessed son.

Angela said Craig “loved the day” and that the little boy “couldn’t even talk to him” because he was so overwhelmed. “He absolutely loved making that little boy’s day. He was so happy when he arrived,” she added.

But just two weeks into the special shift, Angela said Craig had to take time off work because he began experiencing symptoms including pain and fatigue. She explained that he was so tired that he felt it was no longer safe for him to drive the garbage trucks, and apart from returning to work for two weeks in July, he has not been able to work again.

Angela said: “Multiple myeloma is usually one of the longest cancers to diagnose because a lot of the early symptoms are fatigue, infections, bone pain – it can be literally anything. Craig was diagnosed because he was fit and healthy but he started to gain a lot of weight even though his lifestyle hadn’t changed. You can see in the video he made in 2019 that he had a real Santa belly, which he doesn’t normally have.

“He was also so tired and had bone pains. He went back and forth to the doctors for about six months and they were doing blood tests but they were coming out fine. First he was diagnosed with tennis elbow, which is very common in garbage men. And then it was frozen shoulder. But he was so tired he would literally walk in and pass out on the couch. Our little one was only two and a half at the time and he couldn’t pick her up because he was so exhausted.”

Angela added: “He ended up being sent for a CT scan on his shoulder which found lytic lesions, holes in the bone, and then he had a bone marrow biopsy in December. The doctors hadn’t even gotten the full results back and they called us on December 23, 2020, and said you need to come in now. They knew he had some type of cancer in his blood because the levels were so high.”

Craig, who leaves behind a loving family including his three children Polly, 21, Geordie, 18, and Willow, seven, fought until the end, Angela said. She added: “He tried and took everything that was thrown at him. He literally fought until his last breath.”

He will be greatly missed by his family, who have expressed their gratitude to the staff at Newcastle’s Freeman Hospital Ward 33 and the Northern Centre for Cancer Care (NCCC) who cared for Craig. His family have also organised a series of moving tributes to reflect Craig’s personality at his funeral at Whitley Bay Crematorium on Monday at 3pm.

Guests will receive a personalized shot glass and a shot of tequila at the wake, as Craig was a self-confessed “tequila connoisseur” and would tell people, “I don’t want that (with the red hat), it has to be the right thing.”

Everyone in attendance is invited to wear Crocs, socks and shorts, as this would be their outfit of choice whatever the weather. And guests are also invited to wear Newcastle United shirts or camouflage, to reflect their love of The Magpies, fishing and target shooting.

A convoy of garbage wagons will travel behind the hearse on its way to the service. Cans are also being delivered to the crematorium and instead of carrying a cane, the funeral director will push a can as he leads the procession. His colleagues will also follow behind pushing the cans.

And in a further tribute to Craig, today his son Geordie has an interview for a job as a binman at North Tyneside Council in the hope of following in his father’s footsteps. If he gets the job, he plans to continue Craig’s legacy of dressing up as Santa at Christmas time, and will be wearing the same suit that was custom-made for his father.

Angela said: “I’ll be so proud of him. He wants to follow in his dad’s footsteps and Craig would be over the moon for him, he really would.”