FAMILY and friends of a teenage girl who died after an accident with a motorbike while walking said their final goodbyes at her funeral yesterday.

Hundreds of people were at St Basil's Church, Bassaleg, Newport, to pay their respects to Laurie Mae Roberts, 14, who died on Monday, August 30.

Westlife's version of the Abba song I Have A Dream played as the pallbearers brought the teenager's white coffin into the church, followed by family and friends.

Her parents Jane and John, brother Harry and sister Georgia heard tributes paid by the Reverend Jonathan Williams.

Laurie, of High Cross, a pupil at Bassaleg Comprehensive School, died one day after her 14th birthday following an accident as she was walking on Pen-y-Lan Road.

Mourners sang All Things Bright and Beautiful and recited the 23rd Psalm before Rev Williams said: "We should remember Laurie as she was in life and think of those qualities she had that will stay with us.

"She was a well-liked girl, very sociable and very chatty. She loved school and loved the friends that she had there. Her nickname at school was LOL, which I'm told is short for Laugh Out Loud. That was the sort of girl she was.

"We must go on with our lives knowing that there is a hole in them where used to be Laurie."

Laurie was a member of the Dolman Youth Theatre, and Rev Williams continued: "She had star quality and unusually for someone of her age, she knew what she wanted to do - be a paramedic or join the police force - but sadly those ambitions will remain unfulfilled."

The congregation sang Amazing Grace and prayed for Laurie and her family and friends before the coffin was carried out to the Red Hot Chilli Peppers' The Zephyr Song.

Rev Williams said: "This was one of Laurie's favourite songs. She saw the band recently in Cardiff and it was an occasion that she would never forget."

Laurie was buried at Bassaleg Cemetery.