On his 19th birthday, Whakatāne tour guide Jake Milbank was critically injured when Whakaari/White Island erupted. On his 20th, at a memorial to those who died in the eruption, a group of supporters sang him birthday songs.
The birthday tribute was led by Mark Inman, whose brother Hayden Marshall-Inman died in the eruption.
Marshall-Inman's body was never recovered. The body of Australian teenager Winona Langford also remains lost.
At today's memorial on the Whakatāne beach in front of Whakaari, Inman chose to look forward to the future.
Exactly one year on from the disaster, they are still battling for answers and compensation. (Source: Other)
After the song for Milbank, Inman asked the crowd to cheer 22 times instead of 20 in honour those who went to the volcano and never came home.
Inman also shared a story of when his brother was in the US and how they'd celebrate children's birthdays by tossing them in the air to mark their age.
"But I thought today probably wasn't the day to do that to Jake, so we let him off the hook!" he joked.
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