A mum has used her teenage son's funeral to beg his friends: "Make sure you love and protect yourselves."

Linda Javuz, 44, from Westlea, was speaking just over a week after her 17-year-old son Paul Green died in a car crash near Cricklade.

Paul, who his mother said had the love of motorbikes and cars "in his blood", went for a solo drive to a friend's house on November 24, despite not having passed his driving test.

The borrowed Vauxhall Astra he was driving collided with a Citroen Saxo on the B4553, killing the former Bradon Forest School pupil.

And Mrs Javuz appealed to more than 200 mourners at her son's funeral yesterday to learn from Paul's fatal mistake.

"There is one very simple message for everyone. Please, as God loves you, learn to love yourselves. Make sure whatever you do that you protect yourselves.

"Celebrate Paul's life and please Jesus, give us the strength to carry on without him."

Mrs Javuz moved many in Shaw's Holy Trinity Church to tears during her tribute, which painted a picture of Paul as a sometimes troubled but likeable and adventurous young man.

She recalled how Paul had arrived at "a stormy time" in her life, and as a young baby helped save her life when his presence calmed a man intent on killing her with a baseball bat.

Paul began motorcycle scrambling at the age of six, following in the tyre tracks of his motorbike loving mother and his father David Green, 42, of Thorney Park in Wroughton. And at the age of eight, he helped guide his mother and sister through war-torn Yugo- slavia on the way to a Christmas visit to his father, who went to live in Bulgaria after he split from Mrs Javuz.

Paul's mother said the break up had affected her son badly, but he had bounced back from the trauma by the time he died.

"Paul was a lot more confident he loved life, he loved himself, and he loved (his long term girlfriend) Danielle."

Mrs Javuz added: "He always had a smile and a joke, so let's celebrate his life and be happy."

The funeral service followed a private cremation at Kingsdown.