ST. HELENS, UK — Divers who recovered the body of Alan Costello from a shipwreck acted as pallbearers as the father-of-three's funeral was finally held this week. Fifty-two-year-old Alan, from Moss Bank, died while exploring a shipwreck in the Red Sea, Egypt, more than a year ago. But, as previously reported by the Star, it was nine months later until his body was recovered from the vessel. Hundreds attended the service at St Helens Parish Church on Monday including many who knew Alan from his management of Derbyshire's chemist in Fingerpost. The church was told how he was "always willing to help others less fortunate than himself both in his personal and professional life" Alan went missing after failing to surface from an underwater exploration with St Helens based Northern Union Sub Aqua Club in May 2008. After numerous unsuccessful searches it was feared his body would remain undiscovered. However, his wife Tracy was determined to carry on the searches and a team of technical divers that had been assembled from across the UK recovered Alan's body from the engine room of the sunken coal ship, the Rosalie Moller, in March. It had been the wish of his widow Tracy, from Moss Bank, that those specialist divers that found the body would be pallbearers. She said: "A lot of people said after there had been three searches that he would not be found. "But it is testament to the love that Alan and I shared that I never gave up on him and we brought him home so there could be a funeral. He would have done the same for me." As the pallbearers carried Alan's coffin out of church there was applause from mourners. The service was followed by cremation. by Andrew Kilmurray | 
