Hearts bailiffs chased widow

A young mum was threatened with debt collectors to pay for a Hearts season ticket her dead husband will never use.

Grieving widow Rhona Russell lost husband Blair, 34, a month ago after a brief battle with cancer. The dad-of-four had only been diagnosed with lung and brain cancer three months previously. However, after a brave fight, the Hearts-mad plumber passed away just before Christmas.

Since the diagnosis, Rhona has been involved in a bitter battle over cancelling the season ticket she bought for Blair on finance. Incredibly she claims she even received calls demanding she pay the balance on the day of his funeral despite the ticket having been placed alongside Blair in his coffin.

Last night Rhona blasted: “Blair’s life was family, work and football. He was mad about Hearts and would have given them his last penny if they needed it. But I feel they’ve let him down badly.

“The way I’ve been chased to pay his season ticket is disgraceful. Blair would have been furious about it.

“He paid for his ticket monthly so I have no idea why it couldn’t just have been cancelled. Even on the day of his funeral I was getting phone calls chasing me for payment. It’s been horrific.”

The Jambo was so obsessive about Hearts he owned 86 of the club’s shirts and regularly travelled around the country with his kids to watch them play.

On the couple’s wedding day in November 2012, Blair and his best man and older brother, Moray, donned a pair of the club’s boxer shorts under their kilts to wind up Hibee wife, Rhona.

She said: “I’ve been a big Hibs fans all my life. But I always encouraged Blair to support Hearts and even bought his first season ticket four years ago. We were a family divided by the rivalry between Hibs and Hearts.

“We have four kids and I’m outnumbered as a Hibs fan. Three of them Victoria, 10, Liam, six, and Dylan, three support Hearts.

“My oldest son, Kieran, nine, is a Hibs fan so we used to have a right old barnie in the lead up to a derby match. Liam also had a season ticket and went to the games with Blair.

“I think they had only been to two games this season before Blair was diagnosed. It happened overnight. One morning in September I woke up at 6am and Blair was having a seizure.

“We thought it was just a funny turn but two days later Blair was told he had inoperable cancer and had just months to live. It was that quick.

“He rallied for a while and was allowed home from his hospice to celebrate our first wedding anniversary in November. One of the first things he did was to catch up on how Hearts had been doing on TV.

“He was distraught when the club were plunged into financial difficulties and paid £10 every month in a direct debit to help save them.

“But his first priority was his family and when he knew he didn’t have long to live, we tried to cancel his season book. He didn’t want us saddled with debt when he died.

“He slipped away on December 16 Liam’s birthday.”

Like the couple’s wedding day Blair’s funeral was heavily influenced by Hearts. The coffin was carried in and out of the church with “Hearts, Hearts Glorious Hearts” ringing out. It was also draped in a Hearts flag and he was even buried with his season ticket.

Rhona added: “He joked in his last days about not letting anyone else use it.”

The family had bought two season tickets at the start of the 2013/14 season, one each for dad Blair and son Liam. The tickets cost £450 and £50 respectively and were paid via Derby-based firm Zebra, who specialise in financing season tickets.

Rhona said: “The tickets were in my name so I tried to cancel them in October. Hearts told me it wouldn’t be a problem so I cancelled my direct debit. Weeks later I started getting calls from the finance firm saying I had arrears and needed to pay up.

“I went back to Hearts who told me the person I had originally contacted had been wrong and I couldn’t cancel. They said it was because the only people with the power to cancel season tickets was the board of directors and because they don’t have one at the moment there was nothing they could do,” Rhona went on.

“That’s when we started getting more and more calls, texts and letters demanding the money. They’ve threatened debt collectors and the stress has got too much.”

After we contacted both Hearts FC and Zebra they got back in touch to say the season ticket had been cancelled and the debt written off.

Peter Fletcher, Zebra’s Chief Executive said: “We extend to Mrs Russell and her family our sincere and heartfelt condolences for her tragic loss. Once we were informed of the situation, all activity ceased on her account, we liaised with Hearts and together we have ensured the tickets and Mrs Russell’s loan have been cancelled.”

That statement was echoed by Hearts whose spokesman said: “As soon as this issue was brought to the club’s attention, we moved immediately to resolve the situation.

“Our sympathies and condolences go to the Russell family for their sad loss.”