MOTORCYCLISTS from all over Gwent and beyond gathered to say their goodbyes to Trinant biker Lawrence Harvey yesterday.

About 100 bikers joined the procession to pay their respects to Mr Harvey, as it travelled from the Woodfield Park Funeral Home in Penmaen to the crematorium in Croesyceiliog.

Mr Harvey, who was 42, died on August 27 following a motorbike accident in Croespenmaen two days earlier.

He had carried an organ donor card and two of his kidneys were used to help save other lives.

Mr Harvey, a father-of-six, had been a member of the Arrowheads motorbike group - who meet in Hafodyrynys - for around three months before his death.

Members of that club and several others, including the Grinning Idiots and the Patriots, from Crumlin, joined the line of bikers.

Vice-president Clive Gadd said Mr Harvey was "a really nice chap, easy to get along with".

"He was part of our club and we have all come to pay our respects to him," he said.

Biker Mickey Underwood added: "He was a happy-go-lucky bloke. "He was respected by all of us."

Several hundred mourners turned out for the funeral service, which was led by the Reverend Mark Mesley.

The funeral home was full and many people stood outside in the sunshine, listening to the service being relayed to them.

The Reverend Mesley paid tribute to Mr Harvey, who was Trinant born and bred.

Rev Mesley quoted from an article in the Argus last week, in which the manager of the Kidney Research Unit Foundation in Cardiff said: "People like Lawrence are few and far between. The more people we can find like him the better."

The hymns at the funeral home were The Lord Is My Shepherd and The Old Rugged Cross - while the Queen song No One But You (Only the Good Die Young) was played as the coffin was carried to the hearse. Abide With Me was sung at the crematorium.

The funeral was followed by refreshments at the Welfare Hall in Hafodyrynys.

As well as his six children and a grand-daughter, Mr Harvey leaves his mother Moira, seven sisters and his partner Emma Portman.

The family have asked for donations to be made to the intensive care unit at the University of Wales Hospital in Cardiff, where Mr Harvey was treated after his accident.