FAMILY and friends today comforted each other as they paid their last respects to a fun-loving teenager. Ryan Berry of Lime Close, Godinton Park, Ashford, collapsed in the playground at Homewood School, Tenterden, on February 27, six days before his 14th birthday.

A post-mortem revealed that he had suffered a heart attack. This morning friends and teachers from Homewood School, and Ryan's former primary school, St Teresa's, joined his parents Joan and Allan, sister Melinda and other relatives to say farewell at St Teresa's Roman Catholic Church in Ashford.

In his sermon Fr Stephen Fisher urged everyone to celebrate the happy times they had spent with Ryan.

He said: "Our sorrow now is a sign of the great respect and love we had for Ryan in life. The grief will pass but the memory will not because Ryan was a part of so many people's lives."

Paying tribute to him, Ryan's uncle Michael Lavender said that as a young child his nephew had undergone complicated heart surgery but went on to lead a normal life.

"He was a very happy, boisterous young child and grew into a loving, caring teenager," Mr Lavender told the congregation.

Ryan had just picked his GCSE options and was looking for a part-time job.