New Zealand to honour Jonah Lomu in memorial at Eden Park
Monday 23 November 2015 15:41, UK
A public memorial service honouring New Zealand rugby great Jonah Lomu is to be held at Eden Park in Auckland next Monday.
The All Blacks winger, who won 60 caps for his country and is heralded as one of the country's best ever players, passed away at the age of 40 last week.
New Zealand prime minister John Key announced on Monday that the service will be open to everyone, while a private funeral will take place the following day.
"Jonah touched people's lives across the country and around the world," Key said.
"This service will be open to all members of the public who want to remember the significant contribution Jonah made, not only to rugby here and overseas, but also to the wider community through his work with charities such as UNICEF and Kidney Kids NZ.
"The service will be a celebration of Jonah's life and I expect a large number of people will want to be there."
An event will also be held at Auckland's Vodafone Events Centre for Pacific Islanders to pay their respects to Lomu in their traditional way on Saturday.
Lomu, born in Auckland to Tongan parents, had suffered from a rare kidney disease following his retirement from the game in 2002.
His kidney stopped functioning in October 2011, causing him to need dialysis ever since, but former All Blacks doctor and family friend John Mayhew said the cause of death was a sudden cardiac arrest.
He had collapsed hours after returning from a trip to Dubai on Wednesday November 18.
