A HUSBAND of a hit and run victim today urged the driver to come forward and hand himself in to police.Mike Garnham told how he had been left "numb" by his wife Susan's death on Sunday after she was struck by a vehicle in Stoke Park Drive, Ipswich.

Grant Sherlock

A HUSBAND of a hit and run victim today urged the driver to come forward and hand himself in to police.

Mike Garnham told how he had been left "numb" by his wife Susan's death on Sunday after she was struck by a vehicle in Stoke Park Drive, Ipswich.

His comments and tributes to his “generous and happy” wife came as the grieving family of 81-year-old Bernard Packard also told of their heartache after he died when he was in collision with a motorbike while trying to cross Heath Road in Ipswich on Thursday.

In Sunday's accident, Mr Garnham said his 61-year-old wife had walked to the paper shop early that day when she was struck by the vehicle.

He said normally he would have accompanied her on the short walk from their Hexham Close home but on Sunday he was watching the Grand Prix so she went alone.

He said: "She walked past the lounge and I said 'Cheerio I'll see you later.'

"Then the Grand Prix finished and I thought she had been a long time."

Wondering where his wife was Mr Garnham thought about calling her mobile but discovered she had not taken it with her.

He said: "I left it a bit and I saw two police cars and an ambulance go down and I thought 'it's not right'.

"I walked down and she was just leaving in the ambulance. The police took me to the hospital.

"I was hoping upon hope that it wasn't her."

Mrs Garnham was pronounced dead a short time later.

Her devastated husband today recalled her happiness when they celebrated their 40th wedding anniversary only a fortnight ago.

The couple, who share the same birthday, had been together 42 years in total after meeting at the borough council and Mr Garnham asked his future wife out from the steps of the town hall.

"She was a friend to everyone. We've never been happier. She was just so happy with life. She loved her grandchildren. She would do anything for them.

"She was generous - everybody loved her."

Mr Garnham, 61, a civil and building consultant, said his wife had been born in Thetford but came to Ipswich when she was a girl and went to Northgate High School.

She worked as an administrator at Stoke High School for the past 28 years.

Today he appealed for the driver of the car to come forward. He said: "These things happen and I'm not a vindictive person but I do make a bad enemy."

He said he had been filled with anger after the driver drove away after the incident and wanted him to present himself to police immediately.

Send your tribute to Sue Garnham to starnews@eveningstar.co.uk or write to The Evening Star, Press House, 30 Lower Brook Street, Ipswich, IP4 1AN.