John Henry Kerr was travelling in India and had been drinking with friends until the early hours on the morning of his birthday. He was found unresponsive later that day in bed in his dorm room.
A crowdfunding page set up to help his family pay for the funeral costs surpassed its £3,000 target within seven days of launching.
Sandra Mouat, who set up the page, said that the response to the request showed how highly people thought of the St Helier resident.
‘He touched the lives of everyone he met’, she said. ‘There are not enough words to describe him.
‘He was a fun-loving guy and no one had a bad word to say about him. He could be a bit annoying and cheeky at times but never in a bad way – he was a funny, happy-go-lucky guy.’
Ms Mouat said the 27-year-old had been friends with her son since childhood and that Mr Kerr had become a close friend, even popping round regularly to check in when her son moved to Australia.
She added: ‘They are such a tight group of friends and they are all heartbroken. They are all over the world now but have all flown back because they knew they had to be here for John Henry.
‘It was my son’s birthday the other day and we had a chair out for John Henry because he should have been there. The boys were up till about 5 am talking about him – he meant so much to everybody.’
She added that she had set up the page because funeral costs were often high, and she hoped it might ‘take some of the worry of his parents’ while making sure that ‘John Henry gets a proper send-off’.
‘Everyone has been so generous,’ she said. ‘It goes to show that he touched everyone he met.’
At the opening of the inquest into Mr Kerr’s death, Deputy Viscount Mark Harris said that a post-mortem examination had been carried out in India and the results had not yet been revealed.
The inquest heard that Mr Kerr and his friends had been celebrating until the early hours of Thursday 4 January – his 27th birthday – and had gone to bed. He was found unresponsive after his friends woke up and was taken to Goa Medical College, where he was pronounced dead.
Advocate Harris said: ‘We are waiting for the results from Goa. The indication from the Foreign Office is they could take some time.’
Mr Kerr’s body was released for funeral preparations and Advocate Harris adjourned the inquest until further investigations are completed.
