Mourners celebrate Jake Spicer's life (From Oxford Mail)

Mourners celebrate Jake Spicer's life

6:41pm Thursday 16th July 2009 in

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THERE were cheers, whistles and applause instead of silence today as 500 people said goodbye to cancer victim Jake Spicer.

Mourners who packed the Church of the Holy Family in Blackbird Leys, Oxford, were asked to “raise the roof” in celebration of 15-year-old Jake’s life following his heroic fight against bone cancer and numerous fundraising efforts.

Most of the congregation wore pink at Jake’s request and, after tributes from his parents, Michael and Lesley, teacher Nick Rose and brothers Aaron and Ryan, they rose to clap, cheer and whistle in the teenager’s memory.

Minister Richard Colbrook, who baptised Jake at the church in January, said: “It’s become quite common at football matches that instead of having a minute’s silence you have a minute’s standing ovation. I would like everyone to stand and not just clap but really raise the roof for Jake.”

Earlier he said: “There are a few people, just a few, that each of us will meet in our lives that have such a significant impact on our lives that we are changed.

“Jake Spicer, a young man of overwhelming courage, care and love, is one such person.”

Jake, a pupil at St Gregory the Great School, East Oxford, died on July 8 at Helen House after a five-and-a-half year battle with a rare form of bone cancer, Ewing’s Sarcoma.

After he was diagnosed, he raised thousands of pounds for charity.

Hundreds of people lined the streets of Blackbird Leys to greet the funeral cortege, with Jake’s family arriving in a white stretch limo decorated with pink flowers, streamers and balloons, escorted by Harley Davidson bikers from the Oxford chapter. Jake was an honorary member.

People wore pink ribbons, scarves, feather boas, belts, shoes and shoelaces as well as vests, shirts and ties.

Among those carrying Jake’s pink coffin into the church to the sound of Leona Lewis’s Footprints in the Sand, were Aaron and Ryan, wearing pink T-shirts with pictures of Jake and the words OX4 Soldier emblazoned on them.

Aaron, 20, who had JAKEY shaved into the back of his sprayed pink hair, said he was proud and honoured to have known Jake, and Ryan, 18, paid tribute to his brother as an “inspiration” to young people. Jake is also survived by his sister Maddison, aged four.

Mrs Spicer said: “From the moment my son was born I knew he was going to be a very special boy. He was brought by an angel and sadly he was taken by an angel before his time.

“The bikers called him Little Harley, to his friends at school, he was the OX4 Soldier, but to us he was our little son and our hero.”

There were also tributes from David Simpson, of the Harley Davidson chapter, and a ‘grime’ rap from friend Marlon Williams.

A collection was held in aid of Helen House.

About 70 Harleys accompanied the funeral cortege to Wolvercote Cemetery, where Jake was buried.