The family and friends of a teenager who died in a car crash are raising thousands of pounds in his memory.

Matt Meacham-Roberts from Badersfield died on June 20 last year after the Peugeot 106 he was driving lost control and veered into an oncoming Citroen C3 near Norwich Rugby Club.

Speaking after the inquest yesterday into the 19-year-old's death his father, Dale, said his son had been good friends with Ryan Sweatman – the 19-year-old from Coltishall who died in his sleep from meningococcal septicaemia at his home in January last year.

Both the teenagers were huge Norwich City fans and had season tickets at Carrow Road.

Matt had played in a memorial match at the ground in his friend's memory in May – less than a month before he died.

His father, a paramedic, said: 'It has been a difficult time for their friends. Matt was very considerate and had a great passion for Norwich City.' And the family and their friends have raised around £6,000 for Help for Heroes and the East Anglian Air Ambulance since his death.

Matt's sister Samantha will run the London Marathon on April 21 – the day her brother would have celebrated his 20th birthday.

Ryan and Matt's friends, as well as Mr Meacham-Robert's former armed forces' colleagues, will also take on a 12-mile assault course in May called Tough Mudder for charity.

The student worked at the McDonalds restaurant at Hoveton, near Wroxham and studied for a public services national diploma at City College Norwich.

He wanted to follow his father's footsteps and join the armed forces.

At the inquest yesterday, motorist Dennis Stratton described the moments before the crash.

Just before 10am he was travelling out of Norwich on the B1150 North Walsham Road between the junction of Crostwick Lane, Spixworth and the Norwich Rugby Club.

'He (Matt) was going close to the verge,' Mr Stratton said: 'I looked away from him and the next thing I knew there was a flash of car and it came across the front of me.'

Giving the cause of death as multiple injuries caused by a car crash, coroner William Armstrong said: 'He must have been subject to some distraction or a momentary lapse of attention.'