JORDAN bus crash survivor Graham Haslam is expected to return to York on Saturday after doctors in the Middle Eastern country give him the all clear.

The retired Methodist minister and tour leader lost his wife, Margaret, 70, when their coach was involved in a terrible crash on the desert highway two weeks ago.

He suffered a broken leg and head injuries and will be among the last people to leave the King Hussein Medical Centre in Amman where all nine survivors received treatment.

Jean Keith, of Gosforth, Newcastle, was expecting to return to the UK today, church leaders said.

Four pilgrims from York and five other Britons died when their tour coach burst a tyre and collided with an oncoming pick-up truck on October 28 during an eight-day visit to the country.

Among them were Dunnington couple Owen and Jean Dale, both in their 60s, and Heworth Methodist Church member Hilda Brisby, 80.

It has been announced that a funeral for Mr and Mrs Dale will be held at St Nicholas's Church, Dunnington, where they were both members, next Tuesday at noon.

The elderly couple's daughters, Alison and Fiona, have asked for donations in their memory to be made to Diabetes UK and The Children's Society.

Bob Lawe, of The York and Hull District Methodist Church, said the bodies of Margaret Haslam and Hilda Brisby, 80, were flown back to London last weekend.

He said that a full inquest into all nine deaths was expected to be held by York coroner Donald Coverdale at a date which is yet to be fixed.

Inquests into all nine dead have already been opened and adjourned by coroner Alison Thompson at West London Coroner's Court.

Mr Lawe said the funerals of Nancy Ansbro, 67, and Hazel Clement, 62, of Louth, in Lincolnshire, will take place next week at St Mary's Roman Catholic Church and Louth Methodist Church respectively.

The funeral of Richard and Angela Fothergill is expected to be held next Wednesday in Newcastle and Len Tant's funeral will be held at Christ Church, Uxbridge, London, next Friday.

Dunnington couple Roger and Pat Brown returned to York earlier this week. Mr Brown, 67, suffered injuries including a broken collar bone, while his 66-year-old wife, a steward at Melbourne Terrace Methodist Church, York, suffered head injuries and bruising to the base of her spine.

Updated: 10:08 Friday, November 12, 2004