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24th March 2023
07:00am GMT
A shame-faced son has appealed for help in finding his dad's ashes which he lost in a Tesco bag for life after 'one last trip to the beach' turned into nine-hour pub crawl.
Stan Blade, 39, planned to make a TikTok video of himself visiting pleasure rides at Southend, Essex, with dad Stephen Jewitt's ashes as a final farewell.
But instead of visiting the dodgems on Southend Pier with his dad he bumped into a group of old pals and ended up on a pub crawl in his former home town.
Sometime during the crawl Stan mis-placed the shopping bag containing a wooden casket which held the ashes of his dad who died aged 60.
He only discovered his blunder after finally arriving home just after midnight on March 18 having drunk six tins of Stella and five pints of lager in a couple of pubs.
He confessed to his irate step-mum Emma Hopkins who had previously told him he could not take the ashes out of her home.
Musician Stan said: “I came home, and my step mum asked ‘where is your dad?’
“She was not pleased with me at all, and I do not blame her."
@stanstoks Lost my dad’s ashes and step mums not happy ! #FindStansDad #stanstoks #stanblade #rip ♬ original sound - S T A N B L A D E !
He added: "My dad was a really funny bloke and he would have absolutely loved the idea of me riding a roller coaster with his ashes by my side.
“He had a good sense of humour, so I just wanted to do something to pay tribute to that as I haven’t visited my hometown in a while.
“The idea was to take him to the beach and go on the bumper cars and get an ice cream, you know all the stereotypical things you do at the beach.
“But I ended up bumping into friends and getting drunk along the seafront."
After he realised his dad was missing, Stan went straight back to scour every pub he had been to with his friends but no one had seen his dad.
He visited Chinnerys, The Cornucopia and a hotel bar on Marine Parade in Southend-on-Sea, but no one had seen his dad.
He last saw the wooden casket holding his father's ashes near Adventure Island on the seafront.
He then made a TikTok appeal for information on the whereabouts of the ashes.
In the video made the same night titled 'missing person,' Stan explains he was visiting his hometown from Leicester, Leics, where he now lives, to see family and friends when he came up with the idea.
Still slurring in the video from the bar crawl, he said: "I convinced my step-mum to do a TikTok.
"I thought it would be funny- put him in the dodgem cars, put him in the big wheel, give him a kiss-me-quick hat and a stick of rock and stuff.
"She didn't want me to do it but I did it anyway."
In reply to his question, 'are you ready to see the funny side yet?' his step-mum, Emma Hopkins, 49, said: "Not really no, I've f***ing had those ashes for 12 years.
"I told you not to take them to the seafront. All you want to do is do things on TikTok."
Stan's dad Stephen Jewitt died in 2011 at age 60 from complications of alcohol abuse.
If his ashes aren't found soon he will report him missing to the police.
Stan can be contacted for information about his Dad's ashes via TikTok @stanstoks and Instagram @StanBlade_.
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