LIFELONG AFC Bournemouth fan and photographer Mick Cunningham died on Sunday, aged 55.

He collapsed the day before while working for the Daily Echo during the first half of AFC Bournemouth's game at Stoke City. Many tributes were paid by his former colleagues at the club, where he had worked for some 20 years.

Born in Bear Cross on April 26, 1960, Mr Cunningham went to Oakmead School in Kinson where his love of football flowered. He was, his father Ronald said, an "average" student, but he later excelled on a hairdressing course at Bournemouth College.

In his teens he and a group of friends founded a Sunday League team which was as enthusiastic as it was low on talent.

From a young age he and his sisters were taken by their parents to Cherries games, sowing the seeds for what would become his consuming and enduring passion for the club.

For a short while after leaving school Mr Cunningham worked as an apprentice hairdresser in Moordown, but on turning 18 he joined the Royal Air Force.

Based at RAF Lyneham, he took part in the Falklands War flying on board Hercules aircraft ferrying supplies to British forces on the islands from Ascension. The journey required two mid-air refuelling operations.

He was posted around the world in the later years of his service, including Belize and Cyprus, but nevertheless he took any opportunity he could to return home and watch his beloved Cherries.

On leaving the forces in 1990 at the age of 30, Mr Cunningham began working at Bournemouth Airport and moved into a flat in Verwood.

However he soon became increasingly involved with AFC Bournemouth, writing about the matches and players for the programmes, and eventually what began as a hobby on the side became his profession.

Mr Cunningham worked for the Cherries for two decades, organising and printing programmes, taking pictures, working in the shop and car park and doing any odd jobs which needed doing.

He set up the Exiles club for ex-pat supporters, and the 'Not the 8502' fanzine, was a keen support of the Junior Cherries, and with his mother Margaret - also a passionate football fan - he visited every league football ground in England and Scotland to join the 92 Club.

For most of his time with Cherries he was never formally employed, so it was ironic that when the club finally took him onto its books it was not long before making him redundant in 2013.

He was, his family said, "completely bonkers" about the Cherries, and regarded his full employment there as a sign that he "had done it".

It was a measure of how hard the redundancy hit him that, for a time, he stopped attending Cherries matches.

He offered his services to Verwood Town Football Club who benefited from his expertise and now remember him very fondly. He also became involved with the AFC Bournemouth Ability Counts football club for the disabled.

Mr Cunningham loved walking and running. Beating the London Marathon, he also climbed Snowdon and took part in rural walks around Dorset. He also loved his spaniels Alfie and Eddie.

In the last 12 months of his life he was very ill with pneumonia and could not work or attend matches. He had been recovering well when he went to Saturday's game and was taken ill.

Many tributes were paid to "a friendly face and a really genuine guy", a "lovely man who would do anything for anyone" and "a big kid with a big grin on his face".

He leaves his son Liam, 19, his father Ronald, sisters Alison and Lesley, nine nephews and nieces and six great-nephews and nieces.