Jay Slater’s grieving mother has had her son’s favourite clothes made into cushions after he tragically plunged to his death in Tenerife last summer.
The apprentice bricklayer, from Oswaldtwistle, Lancashire, was last seen on the Spanish island on June 17 after partying at the NRG music festival.
After a month-long search, the 19-year-old’s body was found near the mountainous village of Masca and a post-mortem examination revealed he had died from ‘traumatic head injuries, consistent with a fall from height’.
His mother Debbie Duncan, who travelled to Spain with other family members to help look for her son, has now had cushions made out of Jay’s clothing in a touching tribute to the teenager.
His Nike, Hugo Boss and Under Armour track tops and t-shirts have been converted into cushions by Homemade With Love Oswaldtwistle, a company which specialises in crafting handmade items.
In a post on their Facebook page, the company said it was ‘honoured’ to have been asked to create the ‘personalised memory patches’.
Pictures of their work also revealed that the company had crafted any remaining parts of Jay’s clothing into heart-shaped bows, along with a message that said: ‘In Loving Memory Of Jay Slater. Forever 19!’
The post read: ‘Forever 19. All of my work touches my heart, but I must admit this one really touched me. I was honoured to be asked by Jay’s Mum to make these cushions, using his favourite clothes.
‘I hope they bring comfort to each person receiving them. Each one had a personalised memory patch added. Thank you so much Debbie for entrusting me to make these for you. Sending so much love.’
Hundreds gathered in Accrington in August to bid known raver Jay a final farewell at his funeral, as his coffin was laid to rest amid an encore of drum-and-bass music.
During their eulogies, friends recalled Jay’s ‘buzzing and smiling’ demeanor and told their late schoolmate to ‘keep partying hard up there’.
Debbie, 55, and Jay’s father Warren Slater, 58, led the procession of mourners through the drizzle on August 10 to the service at the packed Accrington Crematorium Chapel, while many more watched on an outdoor screen.
On November 21, A GoFundMe page titled Get Jay Slater Home was closed after it had received £72,821 worth of donations.
In a final post on the page, Jay’s family said they had been able to give a ‘truly deserved… send-off’ at his funeral.
They also explained how the donations were spent, which included hiring a search team from the Dutch non-profit organisation Signi Zoekhonden and paying for their stay in Tenerife while they searched for the teenager’s body.
The post read: ‘We would like to thank all you beautiful people who supported us throughout this heartbreaking time. Jay really did touch the hearts of the nation and it truly showed us how much love you all shared with us.
‘With your support we were able to stay in Tenerife until we got our beautiful boy back to the UK. We were able to fund the Signi search team from the Netherlands who supported us throughout the days when Jay was found. Jay truly deserved the send off we were able to give him and we thank you all for that.
We have been overwhelmed with messages of support from all over the globe and will be eternally grateful to all of you. Our journey of trauma and grief will continue for ever and we will never recover.
‘We lost our beautiful boy in extremely tragic circumstances whilst the world watched. We do not and will never understand how Jay’s story reached every corner of the globe.
‘Our journey is far from over but the burdens eased with your support. We would also like to thank the person who looked after Jay’s fundraiser page whom we have been in constant contact with, especially whilst in Tenerife, the support and advice you gave will not be forgotten’
Debbie previously revealed that Jay was due to sit his driving test once he was back home in the UK and that he had a good job and so much to live for, before his life was tragically cut short.
She told The Sun: ‘Jay was 19 with the world at his feet. He was coming back to a good job and was about to take his driving test. He was just a lovely boy with a massive personality and everybody just loved Jay being in his company – family, friends and work.’
Jay went missing after he attended the NRG Festival rave at Papagayo, in Playa de las Americas, on June 17.
The teenager got separated from his friends and went back to an AirBnB holiday cottage in the remote village of Masca with two British men he met.
He was last seen trying to walk the 10-hour journey home from a night out after missing a bus back.
Jay is believed to have lost his footing and fallen while desperately trying to climb through the ravine to try and return to his hotel.
An autopsy later found he suffered broken bones but died of traumatic head injuries, consistent with a fall from height, and his death would have been instantaneous.
But Debbie later received a devastating call from Jay’s pal Lucy Mae Law telling her he was missing the next day on June 17.
Footage of the inhospitable terrain in Tenerife which Jay clambered over shows a series of ridges and rocky outcrops with sheer drops of up to 300ft either side.
The volcanic landscape is considered to be almost inaccessible by people on foot apart from by experienced mountaineers with ropes and climbing equipment.
Some of the gaps between the cliffs are only a few feet wide and hidden in shadows, possibly explaining how the 19-year-old’s body was missed by earlier aerial searches.
Debbie had paid for his room at the Paloma Beach apartments in Los Cristianos, where he and friend Bradley Hargreaves planned to stay for four days.
She said he called her and said they were ‘chilling’ at their rooms and he’d burnt his shoulder, so she said to apply Aloe Vera she’d given him for the trip.
Speaking about the night out, he told her he wasn’t going ‘mad’ and only planned to have a ‘few drinks’, his mother said.
Debbie slammed the cruel trolls who posted comments and conspiracy theories on social media when she was searching for her son.
The grieving mother also revealed she was sent thousands of messages, pictures and videos including mock-ups of Jay being tortured – blasting them as ‘sick’.
She was sent two sick videos of people, meant to be Jay, being beaten up and one clip was labelled: ‘We have your son’.
His funeral was even targeted by online scammers who wrongly claimed people could pay to watch it streaming live.
She reported some messages to the police and vowed to campaign for tougher laws on trolling which ‘terrorised’ her family.
The Slater family received a torrent of abuse online when they were searching for Jay as well as in the weeks after his tragic death.
Trolls accused them of stealing money from a GoFundMe page they didn’t even set up. Jay’s friend Lucy-Mae Law started the fundraiser on behalf of the family.
Debbie said even though trolls attacked her about the fundraiser, she had no clue what it was and barely used any of the money, save for some accommodation costs, a search dog team and Jay’s repatriation.