A proud mum today told how her tragic son will live on after donating vital organs to three desperate patients.

Devastated family and friends of 17-year-old Richard Clarke agreed his liver and kidneys should be given to others after he died following a road accident.

And the youngster's organs have helped a 13-year-old boy in London, a 15-year-old in Derbyshire and a 25-year-old father of a six-year-old girl in Leeds, renew their own lives.

Richard's heart and lungs were not suitable for transplant because of drugs given to the football fanatic in a desperate attempt to save his life.

"It gives us comfort to know that he will always live on in someone else," said his mother Susan Parkin, 42.

"The six-year-old girl has her father back and the others are all young enough to go on and have good lives and children of their own.

"Richard was a lovely lad who would do anything for other people. He loved life and I know he once said organs are no good to us if we are gone.

"All the family said 'yes'. It would have been a waste of three lives if we had said 'no'."

Richard, who lived with his mother and step-father Les Parkin in Gwynne Avenue, Bradford Moor, died in the intensive care department at Bradford Royal Infirmary.

The teenager was walking friends home at around 9.45pm on Wednesday, January 16, when tragedy struck.

As he crossed Bradford Road at Thornbury he was in collision with a Ford Mondeo 200 metres from the junction with Sunnybank Avenue.

The first his family were aware of the accident was when Richard's distraught friends called at the house at 9.55pm

"They were crying and saying he had been knocked down," said Mrs Parkin. "A couple of minutes later the police turned up and said he was alive, but barely."

Mr and Mrs Parkin were driven to BRI where they were told Richard was on a life support machine, with a broken leg, hip and spine and a severe head injury.

A brain scan revealed the extent of his injuries and his family were told that if he did live he would be brain-damaged and paralysed.

They maintained a constant bedside vigil for 22 hours, when, with all hope lost, Richard died. "We got to hold his hand," said Mrs Parkin. "And all his family and friends were around him."

Margaret Clark, matron of intensive care at BRI, said in cases such as this strict national guidelines were followed.

"We try to broach the subject very carefully with the family," she said. "There is literature around which puts the thought of organ donation in their minds to start with and we give them plenty of time to think about it.

"Even if we find a donor card we will always seek the consent of the family.

"This situation usually arises in sad circumstances such as with this with a young boy, but many people find it rewarding.

"One of the hardest things for the family to deal with is accepting their loved one is dead, while they are still on a ventilator."

As part of the strict criteria two consultants must be present during tests for brain stem activity. The family are also given the option of being present during the tests, which Richard's family chose to accept.

Once brain stem death is established, an organ transplant team from Leeds met the family. "They will usually contact them afterwards also to say if the organs were used and to say thank you," said Mrs Clark. "They will tell the family how the recipient is doing, but they are not told any names.

"Many people find this feed back useful."

Two hundred people were expected to attend Richard's funeral at Rawdon Crematorium yesterday, including his brother Glynn, 20, two half-brothers Jamie, 11, and Stewart, 17, and three step-sisters Christine, 28, Karen, 25, and Amanda, 22. He also leaves his father Glynn Clarke.

Richard attended Immanuel CE Community College, Thackley, and worked part-time at the Owlcotes Centre, in Pudsey. Fellow students and colleagues were at the funeral.