A WELL known Kidderminster businessman and stalwart supporter of the Carolians Rugby Club has lost a two-year battle against cancer.

Sixty-year-old Mike Brown, who founded the town's double-glazing manufacturer, Paramount Windows, died at home in Worcester on Saturday with his opera singer wife, Anne Linstrum Brown, and daughters, Suzi and Hannah, at his bedside,

Mr Brown was born in Glasgow but came to Kidderminster when he was 25 and worked for IBM in Birmingham.

He was responsible for the building of several houses around the rugby club and lived in the area, which led to a long association with the club.

Mr Brown played for the first team, was captain of the seconds and was club president from 1988-90, a role he combined with being chairman, a position he held until 1991.

For many years he was a member of the Kidderminster Chamber of Commerce and was its president for 1986-87.

He established Paramount Windows in 1974 and lived in Crundalls Farmhouse, Bewdley, for many years. Mr Brown also set up Foregate Street Investments in Worcester in about 1978 but sold both companies before taking early retirement.

He was diagnosed with cancer just a few months later.

Mr Brown was also a passionate sailor, captain of Worcester Golf Club and his Worshipful Master of the Lewisham Masonic Lodge in Cradley Heath.

Former colleagues and friends are invited to join the family for his funeral service at Woodgreen Evangelical Church, Hastings Drive, Warndon Villages, Worcester, tomorrow at 11am, followed by a wake at The Talbot, The Tything, Worcester, from 5pm.