Video: Sheffield pays its respects to hit-and-run victim Jasmyn Chan

A “BEAUTIFUL, CARING” teenager who died in a hit and run while saving her friend’s life was given a “hero’s send off” at her funeral today.
The horse dawn carriage carying Jasmyn Chan towards the chapel at City Road Crematorium, Sheffield.The horse dawn carriage carying Jasmyn Chan towards the chapel at City Road Crematorium, Sheffield.
The horse dawn carriage carying Jasmyn Chan towards the chapel at City Road Crematorium, Sheffield.

Jasmyn Chan, 14, died after a car collided with her as she tried to push her 12-year-old friend Tia Tucker from danger on May 9.

More than 1,000 mourners turned out to pay tribute to the Sheffield schoolgirl, known to her friends as Jazzy, and heard how her selfless act was not something learned in a few seconds but rather “a way of life” to her.

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Music was the resounding theme of the 25-minute service, a nod to Jasmyn’s talent as a drummer. At several points Rev Mike Reeder made reference to the John Legend song All Of Me, relating it to the final moment before she died.

The horse dawn carriage carying Jasmyn Chan towards the chapel at City Road Crematorium, Sheffield.The horse dawn carriage carying Jasmyn Chan towards the chapel at City Road Crematorium, Sheffield.
The horse dawn carriage carying Jasmyn Chan towards the chapel at City Road Crematorium, Sheffield.

He quoted: “Because I give all of me and you give me all of you.”

He told the congregation: “The very reason we are here today is because Jasmyn did exactly that, even to the extent of the split seconds that were left to Jas she thought of someone else and pushed Tia out of the way of the oncoming car.

“This action is not something that is learnt in the split seconds before a decision has to be taken, it is a way of life and is as normal as breathing to those who have such a gift.

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“Putting it another way, the actions of that split second were the very beat of her life.”

Family, friends and well-wishers stood in silence as Jasmyn’s small white coffin arrived in a grand, horse-drawn hearse.

The hearse was followed by family and friends being driven in two limousines and a vintage motorised hearse carrying floral tributes.

The coffin was carried into City Road Crematorium to the strains of the Enrique Iglesias song Hero, followed by her family, each carrying a white rose, and Tia, who had a pink pot on her leg.

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The huge crowd of mourners meant many stood in the sun and listened to the short service on loudspeakers, and some of her friends wore t-shirts with the writing ‘RIP Jazzy’.

Jasmyn, a pupil at Birley Community College, was described as a beautiful, caring, creative tomboy who was a role model for so many and a “very special person from an early age”.

Rev Reeder, the chaplain of St Luke’s Hospice in Sheffield, said that while people can’t being Jasmyn back what they can do “is give her a hero’s send-off, which is what she deserves”.

After leaving their white roses on Jasmyn’s coffin, her family left the church to Macklemore and Ryan Lewis song Same Love, which Jasmyn had on repeat on her iPhone.

Dozens of floral tributes where left on the ground outside.

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Jasmyn lived with her parents and younger sister just a few hundred yards from where the crash happened at Normanton Hill, in the Intake area of the city.

No one has yet been charged over her death, and a man who was arrested on suspicion of causing death by dangerous driving has been released on bail.

In the days following her death, Jasmyn’s parents Peter Chan and Paula McCullie, made an emotional appeal for anyone who knew the driver of the car that hit their daughter to come forward.

Mr Chan said: “Our daughter was beautiful, inside and out. I cannot put into words the pain and devastation I feel in my heart knowing she is gone.”

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He spoke of how the teenager had just had her hair shaved off to raise money for a cancer charity.

He added: “As a family we are heartbroken and I don’t know how we will ever get over losing Jasmyn.”

Almost a month on from the fatal hit and run, police are yet to charge anyone over Jasmyn Chan’s death.

A 32-year-old man arrested the week after the teenager was killed was released on bail pending further enquiries.

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Police have urged a man who was seen near the scene to come forward.

The white man in his late teens to early 20s was seen less than a mile away from the collision, walking in the carriageway of the Mosborough Parkway close to Coisley Hill roundabout, at around 9.30pm.

Police investigating the hit and run are also trying to trace a Honda Civic car, registration P135 FEO.

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