Hi °C | Lo °C Heartbroken friends of school bus crash victim Natasha Paton yesterday celebrated her life — a day after what would have been her 18th birthday.
Mourners wore brightly-coloured clothes and specially made hoodies dedicated to their friend as they gathered to say their final farewells.
The 17-year-old died after a coach carrying 39 pupils and five members of staff from Lanark Grammar School lost control, hit a bridge and plunged into a river during a snowstorm last week.
Natasha, from Cleghorn, South Lanarkshire, was travelling with classmates to Alton Towers theme park in Staffordshire when the accident happened. She would have turned 18 yesterday.
Her parents requested that mourners wear brightly-coloured clothing.
Many youngsters wore her favourite colour, purple, while others wore blue hooded tops with “Gone But Not Forgotten, Natasha” printed on the back.
Her family, also wearing splashes of purple, linked arms as they walked into the church.
Earlier, Natasha had been taken to Holytown Crematorium in a purple coffin for a private service.
