A LEUKAEMIA sufferer has been left heartbroken after his struggle to keep his exotic fish alive during the mammoth power cut, failed.

Paul Martin, 53, from Brook Street, Northumberland Heath, a former painter and decorator, had desperately tried to keep his garden pond, containing his 15 koi carp and two sturgeon, oxygenated, after the electric air pump was knocked out by the power cut.

Every few hours he ran his garden hose into the pond, using the running water to keep it aerated.

He went to bed believing a three-hour rota supply of electricity would kick in, in the early hours of the morning, while he grabbed a few hours sleep.

This would start the pump, providing his fish, worth more than £3,000, with their vital oxygen.

But when he got up, he found his fish floating on the top of the water.

Mr Martin, who has had the fish for 10 years, said: “They were my pets. They would come to the surface to be stroked and feed from my hand.

“They were part of the family.”

He added: “I loved sitting in the garden, watching them. It is a tragedy.”