A "talented" teacher was killed in a crash on his way home from watching the World Cup.
Cameron Dunmore, 29, from Woolton, died weeks before Christmas in Thailand where he was living and working as a teacher. His devastated dad Colin Dunmore, 58, said Cameron was travelling home on a Honda moped when he was involved in a crash on a road with no street lighting and poor signage, where roadworks were taking place.
Cameron's family were thousands of miles away in Liverpool when they received a phone call from a friend on November 28 informing them of the tragedy. Colin told the ECHO: "My alarm is always set for 6.30 in the morning.
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"We went to bed on Sunday night, watched a bit of TV, turned the telly off, turned the lights out. My alarm is the same as my ringtone so I thought it was my alarm going off at about 6.25am.
"I initially hit the button to stop it, it goes into snooze, but it rang again almost immediately."
It was at this point that Colin realised his phone was ringing and answered to find Cameron's friend Sam in tears on the other end of the line. Colin said: "As soon as I hit the call button I could hear him wailing.
"I just had this sinking feeling. There was just something inside me that just knew he'd died."
Colin soon received a call from a medical professional at the hospital in Thailand confirming the devastating news. Within an hour he booked a flight for himself and his wife Trish, 58, to travel over to Thailand, where they arrived the following day.
It took 12 days before Cameron's body could be flown back to Liverpool at a cost of nearly £5,000. Colin said: "We were told it could take two to three months but we managed to do it in 12 days only because of Cameron's friends liaising with Thai officials from the hospital and the police."
The funeral was held at St Mary's Church in Woolton on Thursday, December 22. Cameron travelled over to Thailand to teach in 2018, where his mum, dad and brothers would go and visit him twice a year.
Paying tribute, Colin described Cameron as an "intelligent" and "talented" man who played all kinds of instruments including the piano, the guitar, the accordion and the saxophone.
He said: "I think every parent is biased but I'm bowled over by what other people have said about him. He was an amazing person. From a young age I think they described him as special at school.
"He was a very intelligent boy - he was the youngest in the class. He was exceptionally kind."
Cameron was a pupil at St Edwards College in West Derby and attended Eliott-Clarke theatre school where he learnt tap, ballet, modern, jazz and drama. He performed in shows at Liverpool Empire theatre and at university he was in a band called Jeff Plays Bass, who went on to perform on small stages at Glastonbury.
In Cameron’s eulogy, Colin said: "Cameron had a special place in his heart for the homeless, he knew many of them by their first name and always made time to talk with them.
"Every now and then especially in the winter months, Cameron would send me some money and ask me to go to town and look for a few homeless people who he regularly chatted with and looked out for. Amanda was one such person, she was a very intelligent young woman and like Cameron she was an avid reader.
"When he was living in Liverpool he always took his books once he’d read them and gave them to her and then a few weeks later he would take her for a coffee on Tithebarn Street and they would discuss the books he gave her and chat about other things too."
Colin said: "I don't want to paint him as a saint. He was a character - he just lived life to the full."
A Just Giving page was set up by Cameron's friend Sam in his memory. To visit or donate to the page click here.
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