FRIENDS and family gathered to pay tribute to Jamie White and remember his "ever cheerful grin".

Mourners at his funeral yesterday spoke about the love the teenager had for his friends and family and their last memories of him.

Up to 200 people gathered at St Peter's Church, in Hampden Park, Eastbourne, to pay their last respects to the popular 18-year-old.

Jamie died less than a month before his 19th birthday when the car he was in crashed in Ditchling Road, Brighton, on November 26.

Jamie's coffin, adorned with flowers in the colours of his beloved Brighton and Hove Albion, was carried into the church where a moving service began and ended with songs from one his his favourite films, Titanic.

Friend Lee Dellow, 16, said: "I knew Jamie for about two years and I never left his side during that time. He was a good friend.

"One of the last memories I

have of him is when on Sundays

a lot of our friends would

work so we used to get

together, have a cup of coffee and watch the old films on the television. I know if there is a heaven Jamie is up there making the most of it."

Jamie lived in Lomond Avenue, Patcham, Brighton, with his grandparents, Marguerite and Ken Stubbs, who were at the service along with his parents, Julie and Andy White.

He had moved from the family home in Eastbourne because he wanted to live in Brighton which he thought was more exciting.

Jamie was working for Trend Hair Supplies in Western Road, Brighton, and had collected his first pay packet the day he died.

Father Martin Onion who took the service read passages from the Bible, including the Gospel of St Luke, the nativity and St Matthew, the resurrection of Jesus.

He also referred to the final scene of Titanic when Kate Winslett's character, Rose, lets go of her lover Jack, the actor Leonardo Di Caprio, as they float together in the icy sea.

Father Martin likened the moment Jack slips into the depths to Jamie's tragic death.

He said: "The scene cuts to Rose as on old woman and she says how the people in the water had nothing to do but wait, wait to die, wait to live, wait for an absolution which would never come. In the same way many of us will be thinking the same of Jamie and the absolution that will never come."

Floral tributes included one from work colleagues and another sent on behalf of staff and players at Brighton and Hove Albion, of whom Jamie was a loyal and proud supporter.

Others attending the service included former classmates from Parklands, Highfield and Willingdon schools in Eastbourne

and his team mates from

Polegate Grasshoppers football team.

Last Sunday 20 friends walked from Jamie's home in Patcham

to the Palace Pier in Brighton

and the old Goldstone Ground, then on to Albion's new ground

at Withdean and back to Patcham.

Money raised will help buy a memorial bench on The Green, Patcham.

Unemployed Gary Whibley, 18, of Ditchling Road, Brighton, is charged with causing the death of Jamie White, 18, from Patcham, by driving dangerously on November 26. He was remanded in custody at Brighton Magistrates' Court yesterday until January 11.

He is also charged with taking a car without the owner's consent and driving at speed through a red traffic light while over the legal alcohol limit. An application for bail was refused.

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