Friends to honor the memory of Newcastle Uni student who died after being hit by a car

The friends of a Newcastle University student who died after being hit by a car, are paying tributes to his memory and have described him as a “special person” who was “funny” and “hardworking”.

Liam O’Conner was hit by a silver Peugeot 308 on Great North Road in Jesmond, Newcastle last June. The incident took place near Forsyth Road at 1.40am.

Liam suffered fatal injuries and was rushed to hospital after colliding with the vehicle, it was in hospital where he sadly passed away, reports ChronicleLive.

He was originally from Manchester and moved to Newcastle University to study Mathematics and Finance. Liam had just completed his second year of uni and lived in Jesmond. He planned to study in San Jose, California for a year abroad.

During his first year at uni, Liam made friends with Freddie Howard, 20, originally from Portsmouth, and Jenson Yorke-Hadley, 21, from York whilst living in Castle Leazes.

When asked about his friendship with Liam, Freddie said: “We got on with Liam so much. He was very funny, he had quite a dry sense of humour. He was quite easy to get along with, he was more interested in asking about everyone else than himself. I couldn’t have asked for someone better to live my first year with.”

Jenson, another friend of Liam also said: “Anyone who knew Liam personally will know he was as good of a person as anyone could possibly be. He had the natural ability to take life as it came and his calm nature gave a warm presence to those around him.”

Although Freddie didn’t live with Liam in second year, they remained close and tried to contact Liam on the night of the collision to meet up.

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Freddie said: “It was the night before I went home from uni and I hadn’t seen him for a couple of weeks. We were all talking about what we were going to do over summer. While we were out, me and Jenson were messaging him to meet up – not knowing he had been in an accident on the same night.”

They found out about Liam’s death after a phone call from a mutual friend, both very shocked and saddened by the news.

In order to honour Liam, Freddie and Jenson plan to raise money for Brake – The Road Safety Charity. They’re planning to run the Portsmouth Marathon on December 17th. More than £800 has already been donated to the cause.

The link to the GoFundMe page can be found here.

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