Tributes for ice crash victim Kirsten

NEARLY 300 people packed into a village church for a service of thanksgiving for the life of 19-year-old Kirsten Duffus who died following a car accident two weeks before Christmas.

Members of her family and many of her friends took part in the candle-lit service at Burgate, yesterday.

Her mother, Pauline Morgan , gave thanks for a daughter who she described as “my exceptional friend”.

Kirsten, a former pupil at Hartismere High School in Eye, died in hospital following an accident which also killed 24-year-old Henry Wingate from Laxfield.

The pair sustained fatal injuries when a car also carrying two other young people overturned in icy conditions on the B1077 road at Ashbocking - on the way to the funeral of Henry's grandfather in Ipswich.

Rev Jo Goymour, a family friend who conducted the service, said Kirsten had been a “caring, compassionate and loving human being”.

She said the family regarded the large number of people present as a “wonderful tribute” to the young woman.

Friends paid tribute to her quirky sense of humour and her love of life and Kirsten's boyfriend, Max Wingate, 19, Henry's brother, who had also been in the crash car, read a poem he had written.

Photographs of Kirsten, and some taken by her, were projected on to a screen during the service.

Music included the theme tune from the television series Friends, Both Sides Now by Joni Mitchell and Dancing in the Moonlight by Toploader.

The congregation sung the hymn Morning Has Broken. Many of those present had to stand throughout the service because seats were full.

Kirsten, who lived with her mother, step-father and brother, Ewan, 20died in Addenbrooke's Hospital, Cambridge, the day after the December 12 crash.

A keen photographer, Kirsten had studied A-levels at City College in Norwich. She had been in her “gap year” prior to university and had been planning to go to India in May to work with street children.