Former Britain's Got Talent star dies aged 54

Sad news this afternoon as it's been revealed Britain's Got Talent star Antonio 'Popeye' Francis has sadly passed away at the age of just 54.

Antonio, who's act involved him popping out his eyeballs to music, passed away after suffering a stroke and bleeding on the brain, his family have revealed.

Antonio's son said, "A week ago a family friend found him on the floor unconscious where he had a stroke. What's crazy is he was there for at least six days, so he'd survived for at least six days before we got him into the hospital and for the first two days he was breathing by himself."

He then added, "We woke up and I saw him take his last breath and then he stopped breathing. He was back and forth from Barbados where he was staying with our grandma and he started losing his memory. He randomly came back to London, we didn't know why because he had nowhere to stay so he started sleeping rough."

Antonio made it all the way to semi-final of Britain's Got Talent in 2011, after impressing judges Amanda Holden, David Hasselhoff and Michael McIntyre at the time.

Re-live is audition below:

Antonio's family have now set up a Fund Me page, in an attempt to raise £5,000 for his funeral, which is set to be held in Barbados.

The post on the page reads, 'He had slowly been loosing his memory a years prior and had been in out of hospital with minor stroke, high blood pressure, heart failure and other organ issues but we never knew the full extent of his illness as he wouldn't ever say the real problem.' sic

At the time of publication, the fund has raised £2,325, with any additional money being donated to the Alzheimers Fund.

Our thoughts are with Antonio's family and friends at this sad time.

• BGT