Jay...you will stay forever young

Family celebrate life of teen who died on Tenerife

- PHIL CARDY

TEARS AND DANCE HITS AT FINAL FAREWELL FOR MUCH-LOVED LAD.

HUNDREDS of well-wishers yesterday turned out to pay their respects to Jay Slater and help his heartbroken loved ones celebrate the teenager’s life.

Dance hits were played at the funeral for the music-loving 19-year-old, who fell to his death on holiday in Tenerife.

The order of service noted: “If there was anyone dancing on the way to the other side it was him.”

And Jay’s coffin, which arrived on a carriage pulled by black horses, was carried into the chapel to Lana Del Ray’s moving anthem, Forever Young.

The coffin was blue and had Jay’s name on the side. And, at the family’s request, mourners wore blue – the same colour as the thousands of ribbons tied to trees when Jay, an apprentice bricklayer from Oswaldtwistle, Lancs, went missing in June.