He has had far worse things happen in his life and told the CT:"I believe you have to be positive about things.
That's the way I look at life because I have had a lot of tragedies in the last couple of years in my family with close cousins dying, people who were basically like brothers to me so this is nothing compared to all that.
One of my cousins, Adrian, was the same age as me and I grew up with him all my life and he committed suicide.
My other cousin - Adrian's brother - Tony, was five years younger than me and he died of a massive heart attack so that was only in the last three years.
And my uncle on my mum's side died as well so it has been hard but thankfully I have got a strong family and football to fall back on.
It was very unfortunate and strange to die so young from a heart attack.
It happened on the day I was due to play for Northern Ireland against Everton in a memorial game in the Milk Cup and I went into the dressing room to get changed and my sister, who was going to the game with my cousin's mum as well, came to the door of the dressing room and told me there was a bit of bad news that my cousin had died so I just pulled out of the game straight away and went home.
You do hear about it happening in different sports and occasionally on a football pitch and I think that's why clubs are sending players to get heart checks and things these days.
He wasn't particularly sporty but he was a seemingly fit enough lad who worked as an electrician with my sister's boyfriend. Sometimes you have to put things into perspective."