A MAN killed after being hit by a car has been remembered as a “really kind, funny, heartwarming person.”

Speaking at a press conference at Northumbria Police headquarters last Thursday, the family and fiancée of Ponteland man, Nigel Li – who died on his way to work in Wallsend on January 3, after being struck by a car on the A19 – paid tribute to the 30 year-old fibreglass worker.

As well as praising her her fiancé for his good nature, Kirsty Dane said Nigel had a love of cars and kickboxing.

She said she had been dating Nigel for around five years after they met at the automobile centre at Gateshead College.

The pair moved in together at a house in Ponteland and were set to marry in Orlando, Florida in September this year with a reception back in the UK for extended friends and family.

Kirsty added: “Everyone who met him only had good things to say about him.

“You’ll have seen what gets shared about him on social media. It’s only nice things to say about him.

“He did everything for everyone else before he did it for himself. Nothing in life was taken too seriously. Everything was done with a smile.”

Nigel’s sister Rachel Li also shared her memories of her brother on family holidays and trips to their homeland, Hong Kong. “He loved all of us,” she said.

“It is terrible when you get a call with news like that.”

However police said there were still so many unanswered questions surrounding his death and inquiries are ongoing to establish how Mr Li came to be hit by the car after getting out of his car in a lay-by.

And Kirsty and Rachel are pleading for anyone with information about the collision to come forward.

Rachel said: “If anybody saw anything when this happened, no matter how small, it could be important.”

Superintendent Simon Hall added: “It’s a really busy road. There was an awful lot of traffic around at that time of the morning so we are hoping somebody we are not aware of may have seen something.”

Kirsty added: “At the moment we’ve got so many unanswered questions and we feel like we can’t 100 per cent grieve, because we are still yet to know what happened to him.

“We just can’t ask enough for as much help and support we can get so we can get the answers we are looking for so, as a family, we can move forward or at least attempt to.”