HEARTFELT tributes have been paid to a teenager with a passion for motorbikes who died in an accident on his Kawasaki bike.

Jack Marshall, aged 19, of Willersey Road, Badsey, near Evesham, died in Cheltenham General Hospital after an accident on the A435 near Cheltenham Racecourse roundabout on Sunday afternoon.

His parents, Charlie and Angela, said their son had a passion for bikes which stemmed from childhood, when he used to race old mopeds around the fields.

After primary education at Badsey First School, he went on to Bredon Hill Middle School, where he also became a keen hockey player.

He started part-time work with Phil Basford, a garden machinery supplier in Blackminster and became a member of Evesham Motorcycle Club.

During his time studying for A-levels at Prince Henry's High School, Evesham, he began buying and selling bikes and machinery and then landed a work experience placement with the Castrol Honda World Superbike Team at Louth, in Lincolnshire, where he received glowing reports.

When he finished his A-levels last summer, he began working at Response Medical, a cardiac equipment firm in Chipping Campden.

The family said Jack, who has a younger brother, George, was well-known for his sunny disposition and caring manner.

"He was sensitive by nature and went out of his way to help others when they were in crisis," Mr Marshall said.

"What he packed into his 19 years, others would not do in 40 years," Mrs Marshall.

"Jack was a lad who grabbed life by the throat and lived it at 150 per cent. I think this boy, with his exuberance and good humour, has left a gaping hole which has shocked us all," his uncle Ian Jones said.

Jack, who'd had his 750cc Kawasaki motorbike since last summer, died after an accident involving three other cars on the Cheltenham to Bishop's Cleeve road at 1pm.

Police closed the road for four hours. An inquest was opened and adjourned at Tewkesbury magistrates' court yesterday.