A MOTHER has paid tribute to her 18-year-old son who died in hospital five days after being involved in a car crash.

Fernand Hyam, a student and keen sportsman, died on Monday following the accident near the junction nine roundabout at Ashford. He was on his way home from the Living Well gym where he worked part-time when he hit a bridge. .

His mother, father and 17-year-old sister Giselle, with whom he lived in Canon Woods Way, Kennington, Ashford, remembered the light he brought to their lives. His mother, Michelle, 37, said: “In the last couple of months he had really found his feet.

“He had recently met a girl and I could tell he was very happy. He was going to bring her round to meet us but we met her at the hospital and she was there every day. I am glad he experienced love before he died.”

Fernand, who went to St Anselm’s Catholic School in Canterbury, was taken to the William Harvey Hospital with serious head injuries before being transferred to Kings College Hospital where he died.

His mother added: “When we saw him in the chapel of rest he had a little cheeky smile on his face like a sign for us from him to say he would be OK. The hospital was like Piccadilly Circus because so many people wanted to sit with him.”

Mr Hyam started a sports science course in Maidstone in September and had been a keen member of Ashford Athletics Club and Ashford Crusaders football team as a boy.

As well as his unrivalled passion for sports, his prized possession was the blue Fiat car bought with money from his 18th birthday which he celebrated in August.

His father Russell Hyam, 37, said: “He always drove when he went out with his friends and was a very responsible person and much older than his years. Everything was a calculated risk for him which makes this really hard.”