A procession of 200 motorcycles accompanied the hearse of Superbike rider Chrissy Rouse ahead of a poignant and emotional funeral service.
Mourners watched on as the motorbikes, some of which were driven by friends and colleagues of Chrissy, arrived at Emmanuel College in Gateshead on Friday, the 26-year-old's former school.
The bikes were lined up in rows in the school car park just before 11am as Chrissy's coffin was taken into the sports hall to begin the service. Chrissy, from Burnopfield, County Durham, died on October 6, after being involved in a crash while racing at Donnington Park days earlier.
Chrissy was both a student and teacher with Emmanuel Schools Foundation colleges in Gateshead. He was a student at Emmanuel College from joining as a Year 7 student in 2007 until he left in 2014 after completing his A-Levels in economics, mathematics and physics.
In September 2019 he became a teacher of mathematics at Grace College where he worked until Easter 2022 when he left to pursue his Superbikes dream.
Mourners were invited to wear a 'splash of pink' as a means of celebrating Chrissy's life.
The Principal of Emmanuel College, Matthew Waterfield, started with an opening address in which he said, "I cannot tell you how heartbroken we are to have lost one of our finest former students" and hoped that everybody "would be inspired by Chrissy's life and memory to take every opportunity to live life to the full".
After some words from friends and colleagues of Chrissy, Luke Gregory and Kevin Pinder who described him as someone who would always "put others first" and "the bike racing maths teacher who had no limits to his talent", it was then the turn of Chrissy's immediate family, his mum Karen, dad Martin, and sisters Katie and Grace to give their tributes.
Younger sister Grace, in particular, who at just 16 years old, spoke with eloquence about her grief and how much her older brother meant to her.
She said: "I told Chrissy as he passed away that I was going to speak at his funeral and make him proud, so here I am. I have struggled to think of what to say today since the day he died because everyone already knows how great he is. Everyone, even those who never met him know how great he was.
"Chrissy was my big brother, but not just any big brother. In my whole life, living under the same roof until just a few months ago, we had never had one argument, not even a cross word.
"Instead, being 10 years older than me, he took on the role of a sort of father figure as my dad worked away most of my life to fund Chrissy’s dreams in racing. He looked out for me, and I looked up to him. From being small, I wanted to do everything with Chrissy. I was his little shadow."
Gavin Clarke, Economics teacher and close personal friend of Chrissy's talked about how he "so admired the way that Chrissy lived his life, his 'joie de vivre'" and that he "crammed so much into his years."
This was followed by Dom Herbertson, Chrissy's best friend who told a humorous anecdote about a calamitous trip to a KFC drive-thru that displayed Chrissy's unique sense of humour. The proceedings were brought to a close with a prayer and hymn before Chrissy's family left for a more intimate personal service and private burial.
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