A SEA of red and white filled a North-East church yesterday as hundreds of people paid their last respects to a courageous boy who overcame leukaemia – only to be killed in a road accident.

Sunderland Football club bosses joined friends and family in the city’s Minster for the funeral service of 12-year-old Steven Atkinson – one of the Black Cats most ardent fans.

During his life, the youngster won thousands of admirers for the strength he showed in the face of a catalogue of health problems and a threeyear battle with leukaemia as a toddler.

The youngster, of Sunderland’s Ford estate, was killed when he was knocked off his bike on the A183 Chester Road, on October 17.

Hundreds of mourners started gathering up to an hour before the service yesterday as the cortege, bearing Steven’s red and white coffin, was driven to the Stadium of Light and the scene of the tragedy.

Sunderland AFC chief executive Steve Walton, legendary goalkeeper Jim Montgomery, and youth team coach and former club captain Kevin Ball arrived at the church shortly before Steven’s heartbroken parents, Violet and Graham, and his family.

Among those paying tribute was Broadway Junior School headteacher Margarita Acklam.

She said: “Steven can only be described as remarkable in every sense. He was an inspiration to anyone with whom he came in contact.”

A highlight of his life was leading out his team for a Boxing Day home fixture at the Stadium of Light two years ago.

Richard Bain, the headteacher of Sandhill View School, where Steven was a pupil at the time of his death, remembered him for his “energy, exuberant sense of fun, infectious smile and wicked sense of humour”.

Canon Stephen Taylor recalled a boyhood adventure of Steven’s which has entered folklore.

He said: “In days of fox hunting, Steven with his older brother, John, found a tired fox in the field and could hear the hounds about to come over the hill.

“They picked up the tired fox and ran with it to the garden shed, where they hid until the hounds lost the trail. The fox lived to fight another day.”

■ A 20-year-old man has been questioned in relation to the accident in which Steven was killed and released on police bail pending further inquiries.

The Northern Echo attended the funeral with the permission of the family.