'The world lost Ricky Hatton, but he was just my dad to me'

Boxer Ricky Hatton's son has described how moved he was to see thousands of people line the streets of Manchester for his father's funeral.

Campbell Hatton, speaking before an event being held on 7 June at the AO Arena to celebrate his father's legacy, described the send-off 46-year-old Hatton received as "something else".

But he added that it had been hard for the family to grieve the man he described as "just my dad to me".

Stars from across the world of sport an entertainment gathered alongside mourners for Hatton's funeral in Manchester in October, a month after he was found dead at home.

Campbell told BBC Radio Manchester: "It means the world to us. It was no surprise, but the support we've got from everyone has even shocked us."

The funeral car took three hours to go from Hyde towards Manchester Cathedral.

Campbell said: "There just wasn't part of the route that wasn't full of people. We couldn't see one bit of pavement in the three hours we were in the car. We knew how popular he was, but to actually see it, was something else."

Campbell said that since then, the family had had "random people stopping you in the street, saying nice things, checking up on you".

Campbell said the Evening4Ricky event would be "exactly what he would be doing – he'd be having a party".

"It's going to be an emotional night, but it doesn't necessarily have to be a sad one."

He said the return to the AO, a place his father had made a "fortress" and where both he and his brother Matt had also boxed, would be emotional for the family.

"It's a celebration, and we want plenty going, but most importantly we want to raise awareness of mental health and raise money for the charities," he said.

The problem of poor mental health was getting "worse and worse", he said, adding one of his best friends had recently taken his own life.

"I've had my own battles leading up to my dad dying. I heard it all the time that you should be talking, but to get yourself there... doing it is the hard bit.

"Once you're there it's easy, and it helps. It works."

Hatton had been candid about episodes of poor mental health, his struggles with drink and drugs, and attempts to take his own life after he retired from the ring for a second time in 2012.

He was found "unresponsive" at his home in Hyde on 14 September, and a pre-inquest review was told his provisional cause of death was hanging.

A coroner at the inquest into his death last month concluded that while she was "satisfied that Hatton had carried out the acts which led to his death, [she] could not be sure he intended to take his own life".

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The wider world was "heartbroken because they've lost Ricky Hatton, but like, he's just my dad to me, and it can be hard for people to see past that sometimes", Campbell said.

"As a family we've not been able to grieve with any privacy," he added, but said if there was a positive, it was "the support from people checking up on us".

"That's the blessing behind it."

He said his father saw promoting better mental health "as his purpose" after his boxing career.

"I think we should just continue doing that in his name," he said.

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