WHEN news spread that award-winning ice cream man Alf Douglass had died, his grief-stricken customers sent messages of condolence to his family, and a collection was even held to buy flowers for his funeral.

But fortunately the reports of Alf's demise had been greatly exaggerated, and he had actually made a full recovery after a life-saving operation.

Today, he thanked well-wishers for their concern, but assured them that he was most definitely alive and well.

Alf, who has been selling ice cream in York for 45 years, was treated by doctors at York Hospital for a ruptured abscess in his stomach on December 29 last year.

He now hopes to be back in his Winne The Pooh van, selling ice cream to children in the Acomb, Dringhouses and Chapelfields areas of York, by next month. Mr Douglass, 65, of Tadcaster, who was voted the UK's best ice cream man by the Ice Cream Alliance in 2003, said: "The surgeon said that if the operation had been delayed by 24 hours I would be dead. Somebody obviously heard that story, but missed the 'if' part.

"I came out of hospital after ten days, but word had spread, and my family soon started getting calls. My son works at Nestl, and out of the blue one of his colleagues told him how sorry he was.

"It was particularly distressing for me, because my customers were so upset. They are all smashing people, and I hate to think they were sad. On the other hand, this is how I would have liked them to react if I had actually died.

"Apparently, a woman at the King William pub in Acomb started a collection for me. I don't know who it was, but I would thank her and ask her to either return any money or give it to charity.

Pub landlord Stephen Beaman said: "I'd been away on holiday, and when I got back one of our regulars told me that the man who used to sell ice cream to the kids outside had died. Of course, it was a bit of a shock."

Updated: 09:47 Friday, March 04, 2005