The poignant final text messages between a teenage couple who died in a car crash were shared with mourners at one of their funerals.
Kamile Vaicikonyte, 17, and her boyfriend Jamie Moore, 19, were killed after their car crashed on the A5 near Omagh, in Co Tyrone, Northern Ireland on Tuesday. No other vehicle was involved.
Their deaths came a day after Year 13 student Kamile signed a petition calling for the A5 to be made safer.
More than 50 people have died on the road since 2006 and campaigners are pushing for a long-delayed upgrade to be approved to prevent further fatalities.
Kamile had attended an event at her school on Monday that highlighted the dangers, where she added added her name to the campaign.
During her funeral today the last loving messages the couple sent each other were read to mourners.
An uncle of the schoolgirl told the service: ‘They were found on her phone. It was Jamie saying ‘Kamile, l only ever want to be in your hands’ and Kamile said ‘my hands are the only place I want you to be’.
‘It is a very bittersweet ending for us because although we miss them, we know that their love was true.’
He described Kamile as a ‘lovely girl’ who was ‘free spirited’ with the ‘most wonderful smile’.
‘No matter what, Kamile always looked at the future with bright, bright hopes,’ he said.
Priest Cathal Deveney told the service that Kamile’s participation in the school event about the A5 upgrade demonstrated her ‘commitment and love and caring for others’.
‘Little did we know that a few hours later she would die tragically on the A5,’ he said.
He said Kamile had planned extensively for her future and was hoping to go to university to study sociology and criminology.
‘But her plans weren’t to be,” he added.
Mr Moore was a former pupil at Omagh High School. The talented footballer had plans to become a personal trainer.
A scheme to turn the A5 into a dual carriageway was first approved by the Stormont Executive in 2007 but it has been held up by legal challenges and uncertainty over funding.
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