The wife of a dad-of-five Forest fan who died on his way home from a game at the City Ground last month says he was a "perfect all rounder" who lived for his family. Paul Jenner, 61, had watched Nottingham Forest in the Carabao Cup semi-final first leg against Manchester United on the evening of January 25 and was driving back to his home in Stamford.
But after having only been driving for around five minutes, Paul Jenner's van stopped on Davies Road in West Bridgford and a passer-by spotted him at the wheel, initially believing he had fallen asleep. Alison Jenner, 54, who had been married to Paul for 32 years, said: "The person who saw Paul went round the other side of the van and pipped the horn, but Paul just didn't move."
Several people stopped to try and help Paul, including a prison officer who performed CPR, and paramedics soon arrived. Despite the best efforts of those who stopped to help and the emergency services, Paul was eventually pronounced dead and Alison received a call from police at around 12.15.
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Police officers arrived at her home hours later to officially confirm the news of her husband's passing. The family say they are currently unaware of the official cause of Paul's death and a post-mortem examination is currently being carried out.
Speaking about the kind of person Paul was, Alison Jenner said: "He was just a person who absolutely lived for his family and who loved his football. He had been going to Forest since 1976 and he knew a lot of people at the club, in the past some of the players had been friends of his."
Alison says that she and Paul met on a night out in Nottingham where she was driving everybody home given that she had tonsillitis. She said: "All the way back he was rattling away about everything and nothing and that is just the sort of person he was, he had a real zest for life.
"This was the first night we had met but he later asked me if I wanted to marry him. I thought that 'he'll be alright in the morning when he has sobered up', but then he asked me the next day and the next day and I began to think that he really did want to spend the rest of his life with me.
"He said he absolutely did and we went to South Africa three months later and got married on his birthday." Since their marriage, Alison and Paul went on to have five children together - a set of twins now aged 31, another set of twins now aged 23 and another child now aged 25.
Paul, who owned his own plastering company as well as a property development business with Alison, was originally from Nottingham. He and Alison had been living in Southwell before they moved to Stamford in Lincolnshire two years ago.
Speaking about the people who tried to help Paul on the night of his death, Alison said: "I am so grateful to everyone because we can't sit here now and say 'what if', because everyone tried as hard as they could.
"Unfortunately, it was just Paul's time to go. Paul did always used to say though that he never wanted to get ill and end up being a burden, so a lot of people have said that this is probably how he would have wanted to go, without any fuss at all, but that doesn't make it any less heartbreaking for all of us.
"I actually had a message from the prison officer who did CPR on Paul and he said that he had only just been told the day before by police that Paul hadn't made it. He said he was really sorry and that he'd done everything he could, but I was just really thankful that everyone had tried."
The family do not yet have a funeral date given the post-mortem examination, but Alison says that Paul was someone who was surrounded by good friends and family. She added: "Everyone has just been like us, in a total state of shock, because Paul had woken up that morning perfectly happy and normal.
"Paul did always say that if anything ever happened to him, he was really thankful for everything that life had given him and that he wouldn't have wanted to change a thing. For me, I just cannot think of anything negative to say about him at all and I know that everyone says it, but he was an incredibly well-liked and loved person."
Steve Cooper's Reds side lost 3-0 in the home leg at the City Ground before losing 2-0 away at Old Trafford in the second leg. It was the first time since 1990 that Forest had made it to the last four of the League Cup.
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