A memorial bench has been unveiled to honour a promising teenager who was struck by a car and killed.
Gerwyn Allan Osborne-Flanagan, 18, from Cefn Hengoed, died on September 28 last year after being knocked down in Hengoed Crescent.
A bench has now been dedicated at Coleg y Cymoedd’s Ystrad Mynach campus where Gerwyn was studying.
The teen’s IT tutor, Jeff Wood, led the tributes to the student who had ambitions to be a graphic designer in the media.
Mr Wood said: “As staff and students we wanted to show our appreciation to Gerwyn and remember him. I got to know Gerwyn well and he was a happy, nice young man.”
Gerwyn’s mother, Michelle Flanagan, also spoke at the dedication, which was attended by family, friends and college staff.
She said: “I’m overwhelmed and want to thank everyone for being part of this.
“I’m just appreciative of the college. Gerwyn loved school and when he went to college he came back and he believed in himself and believed he had a future, because of all the staff.”
Michelle also read a poem in his memory and paid tribute to Gerwyn’s passion as an uncle of two who is “terribly missed”.
She thanked his lifelong friend, Lauren Dickens, 19, for her role in making the memorial happen.
Lauren was born a month before Gerwyn and the pair were “inseparable” according to Michelle, with Lauren always reminding him of her slightly superior age.
Lauren, who studies Public Services at the college, said: “I feel proud because his name’s here forever, we won’t forget him and now everyone else won’t.
“It is a good place for the bench because he loved college.”
The dedication on Gerwyn’s bench reads: In Loving Memory, Gerwyn Allan Osborne-Flanagan, 9/6/1995 – 28/9/2013, Forever Young.
• Anthony Lee Robinson, 29, of Lansbury Avenue, Cefn Hengoed, has been charged with death by dangerous driving and is due to appear at Newport Crown Court on July 24. He has yet to enter a plea.