Its hard to put into words what a wonderful person Matthew was, but even harder to find anyone with a bad word to say about him. From birth he was a contented and happy baby who very rarely cried and he always had a smile on his face.

He was born in Sheffield and lived in Frecheville until he was 14 when his family moved to Killamarsh. His parents split up when he was small but to Matthew that just meant he now had two families. One in Sheffield with his mum Joanne and Step Dad Ian, sister Fran and step brother Ryan and one in Lazenby with his Dad David and step mum Maria, sisters Emily, Georgia and Molly and step brother Mark.

He made friends where ever he went and had many friends in both sheffield and in Lazenby, the support we as his family have recieved since his death is a testimony of how well he was liked and respected.

He was a passionate supporter of sheffield Wednesday and attended Matches when he could, he also played football for various sides throughout his childhood and only gave up five aside when the responsibilities of colledge study and part time work made it too difficult.

With both his Grandma`s widdowed he was a great support to them often keeping them company and doing little jobs around the house, he was the sort of person who would offer a helping hand to everyone and he was proud to have good manners even in the difficult teenage years he always said thank you to the bus driver as he had been taught to do by his much loved great Grandad Dick.

Matthew attended Birley Spa primary school and Birley community college, he left with several GCSE`s and went on to study engineering at Chesterfield College. He was planning to start an advanced apprentiship in petrochemical project management in September. To pay his way through college he had worked part-time at Burger king and was named as employee of the month in May 2008.

Matthew was a wonderful kind, caring and generous person who deserved to have a happy, long and healthy life, sadly this was not to be.

He has been taken from our family and somehow we have to cope. Our lives have been richer for having had Matthew in them. We are all proud and privileged to had have Matthew in our family and our lives and hope that our precious memories of happier times will help us get through this.