Natasha's life celebrated in a riot of colour

• Pall bearers carry the coffin of Natasha Paton into Holytown Crematorium for a private funeral service. Hundreds later attended a celebration of her life. Picture: PA

Mourners wore brightly-coloured clothes and specially-made hoodies dedicated to their friend as they gathered yesterday to say their final farewells.

The 17-year-old died after a coach carrying 39 pupils and five members of staff from Lanark Grammar School lost control, hit a bridge and plunged into a river during a snowstorm last week.

Natasha, from Cleghorn, South Lanarkshire, was travelling with classmates to Alton Towers theme park in Staffordshire when the accident happened on the A73 near Biggar.

Hundreds gathered at St Nicholas Parish Church in Lanark to pay tribute to the sixth-form pupil at a special service.

Her parents had requested that mourners wear brightly-coloured clothing.

Many youngsters wore Natasha's favourite colour, purple, while others wore blue hooded tops with "Gone But Not Forgotten, Natasha" printed on the back.

Her family, also wearing splashes of purple, linked arms as they walked into the church.

Earlier, Natasha's body had been taken to Holytown Crematorium in a purple coffin for a private service.

Reverend Sarah Ross, the school chaplain, described Natasha as a "lovely person who touched many more lives than she realised".

She said: "We are incredibly sad that she is no longer with us and we would do anything to have her back, but that does not mean we cannot enjoy the memories, share our stories and laugh as well as cry.

"The family tell me that Natasha would have loved all of this attention. The family want this to be as uplifting as Natasha was with her smile and her nature."

The chaplain said: "We won't ever forget her, she meant too much to us. She was a lovely person who touched many more lives than she realised."

A poem was then read out by close friend Keri Stevenson, and later there was laughter among the congregation as another of her friends, Lee Steel, who was also injured in the bus accident, questioned Natasha's choice of football club.

He asked how someone could consider being a supporter of Chelsea, adding: "It really should be Tottenham Hotspur."

Natasha's guidance teacher, Fergie Robson, then paid tribute to the teenager, who wanted to be a beauty therapist.

He said: "I have a particular image of Natasha in my mind which will never leave me.

"That image is of her giving me a sideways glance and smiling.

"That sideways glance is how I have seen her when I have thought about her so many times in the last seven days.

"We all feel powerless, we all wish we could have done more or said more because life can be taken away so quickly before we have the chance to say the things we only think about.

"If we can take anything out of what has happened, it is the determination to keep being better people. Not just in times of great distress and sadness, but in good times. We can all be better.

"Natasha, you literally brought your smile into the lives of people you knew and in those small moments you made lives better."

Investigations are continuing into the cause of the accident near the village of Wiston.

The coach crashed through a bridge parapet and came to rest on its side in a burn just after 6am last Wednesday.

Weather conditions in the area at the time of the accident were described by emergency services as "horrendous".

Several of Natasha's friends were injured in the accident and pupils at the school have been offered counselling.