THE FUNERAL of a young Latvian doctor, killed while riding his bicycle on the A92 Arbroath to Montrose road last week, took place yesterday at Parkgrove Crematorium, near Friockheim.

The tragic death of Leo Petrov, who was primarily in Scotland to improve his English so he could qualify as a consultant in the UK, touched the local community.

Aware that his family were unable to find the money to travel to Scotland for his funeral, the congregation of the linked St Vigeans and Knox’s church, members of the public and the business community in Arbroath rallied round to offer help.

Although money was made available to fly Mr Petrov’s parents to Scotland, his mother decided that she could not make the journey. Leo’s father, also a doctor, did not want to come without his wife.

Instead Leo’s fiancee, his two brothers and their partners, along with a number of his friends and members of the congregation of the linked church, attended the service led by local minister Ian Gough.

The service was recorded on video by a local photographer to be passed on to the Petrov family in Latvia.