Distraught Alley Cronin has opened her heart to the Mail telling how her and her love were planning a romantic trip abroad later this year, when Darren was going to pop the question.

She told the Mail how her life was now empty without her boyfriend who died late on Tuesday night after the silver Peugeot car he was travelling in was in collision with a white Vauxhall van outside the Mayfair Centre, Seaton Carew.

Alley, 17, from the Clavering area of town, told how the young couple, who studied together at Hartlepool Sixth Form College, were planning a trip to Helsinki, Finland.

She said: "I turn 18 on October 28 this year and I've always wanted to go to Helsinki to see the Northern Lights, and Darren was going to take me for my birthday and propose.

"We talked about a future together and now he's gone I don't know what I'm going to do without him."

Darren, who was the sole occupant of the car, was due to sit his A levels in psychology, law and sociology this summer.

Darren, of Ventnor Avenue, Hartlepool, had been dating Alley for two years.

She said: "I just want him to know that I miss him and I love him so much, and I always will do.

"Everything I do reminds me of him and I just wish there was something I could have done to stop him going out that night, I wish he wasn't by himself and that I was with him. I'd do anything to trade places with him."

Since the tragedy, the Mail has been inundated with touching tributes from family and friends as well as education bosses who have spoken of the tragic loss of such a promising boy.

Brave Alley, who is in the lower sixth and studies sociology, psychology, art and English, found the strength to attend college yesterday and sit her own AS level exams.

She said: "There's not a day goes by when I don't think of him, and I hate lying in bed on a night and knowing he's gone and not coming back.

"All I want to do is hold his hand again and tell him how much I love him, how happy he made me and how perfect he made my life.

"I'm grateful to his family, especially Mark and Mandy, for still wanting to have me in their lives after this tragic loss."