A SCHOOLBOY who collapsed and died during an athletics lesson will be remembered by schoolmates and teachers at a special service.

And Millthorpe School, in Nunthorpe Avenue, York, is considering a permanent memorial to 12-year-old Matthew Francis, who died of natural causes at the start of a 200-metre race on Thursday.

The result of a post mortem into Matthew's death means there will be no inquest.

Millthorpe's head teacher, Peter Whitcomb, said the distress at the school had been such that it was felt better for pupils and staff to comfort each other in small groups with counsellors present yesterday.

"We will have to prepare a service where we will talk about Matthew to his year group and his friends after half-term," said Mr Whitcomb.

"There will probably be a permanent memorial to him later, but the main thing is the immediate distress of the pupils at the school."

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.