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Friends and family of 25-year-old Pete Riley, who died in Cambodia on Monday, are raising money to bring his body home.
The Jersey-born builder, who went to Rouge Bouillon and Haute Vallée schools, died in Sihanoukville, a resort town in the south-west of the country. And an online funding page set up to bring him back home had reached more than halfway to the £10,000 target in just 16 hours.
The police issued a statement yesterday saying that his family had been informed but there was no further information about how he died.
Friend Allana Binnie paid tribute to Mr Riley: “Pete was a popular and much loved Islander who leaves behind his treasured family including his special sister Jess and an abundance of friends. He was the life and soul of parties, always wore a cheeky smile and was a legend of a brother, a son, a cousin, a nephew and a friend. He is quite simply irreplaceable and words cannot do justice to explain just how much he will be missed by everyone. Pete had special connections with so many people and was wholeheartedly kind and caring."
Now efforts are being made to bring his body home. A web page has been created to allow people to donate money and a fundraising evening will be held at the Soleil Levant pub in Bath Street, Mr Riley's local, on Friday. The evening will begin at 7.30 pm and anyone who's able to donate a raffle prize is asked to email allana.binnie@outlook.com or telephone 07797 842227. Musician Paul Gallagher will play mostly Oasis songs, Mr Riley's favourite band.
Miss Binnie said: "While we appreciate that this is short notice, we were hoping that we could kindly call on the generosity of our Islanders and businesses for potential financial donations and/or for donations of prizes for a raffle which we intend to hold at the fundraiser on Friday. We would like to thank everyone in advance for their overwhelming support at this tragic time. It is extremely touching to see Jersey pull together in such a remarkable way."
The fundraising website is here.
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