John Travolta today planted a loving kiss on a giant photograph of his son Jett during an emotional memorial service attended by 100 relatives and close friends.

The distraught star and his actress wife, Kelly Preston, accompanied by their eight-year-old daughter Ella Blue, held a low-key, ten-minute ceremony inside a tent in the grounds of their Florida home, comforted by a friends including Lisa-Marie Presley, country singer Garth Brooks, Sopranos actor James Gandolfini, Oscar-winner Forest Whitaker and actress Kirstie Allie.

A female minister representing the Church of Scientology, of which the Travoltas are followers, led the service, which in line with Scientology beliefs celebrated his spirit and his passing into a new life.

Jett, 16, died of a seizure during a family holiday in the Bahamas last week.

“Our families have had a long loving friendship and John and Kelly are amazing parents,” said Mr Whitaker, 47, and his wife, Keisha, in a statement issued following the service.

“We have watched each other’s children grow and cannot imagine the loss of Jett. He was a bright and beautiful young man and we are honoured to have known him,” they added.

Outside the exclusive Jumbolair gated community where Travolta, 54, lives in Ocala, Florida, well-wishers continued to deliver gifts, flowers and condolence cards, handing them to the family’s private security guards who were said to be delivering them at intervals to the home.

Tom Cruise, a fellow Scientologist and close friend of the Travoltas, struggled to keep his composure as he spoke of the tragedy during a television appearance promoting his latest film.

“It’s horrific… just horrific,” he said of Jett’s death, describing Travolta and his wife as “doting parents, just wonderful people”.

Fighting back tears, Cruise, 46, added: “I remember Jett when he was born and I saw him when he was, I guess, just a few months old and John just adored him - both of his children, and Kelly… it’s something I, you know, don’t have the words for.”

Jett was diagnosed with Kawasaki Syndrome as a toddler and endured regular seizures. The family has not revealed whether the two conditions were related.

Friends have stated that he was also significantly mentally handicapped and Travolta’s brother, Joey, reportedly considered the boy to have autism – a condition that Scientology does not recognise.

But rejecting suggestions that Scientological beliefs about conventional medicine may have led to Jett’s physical condition being mismanaged, Cruise argued on ABC’s The View: “That’s not true. That’s just not true.”

He added: “It’s actually just the opposite… they [the Church of Scientology] say, 'Look, get your physical, get medication, get your physical illnesses handled.’”

Meanwhile an international team of scientists revealed fresh findings that they say will assist the search for new treatments for Kawasaki Syndrome, a genetic disease that can affect the heart and arteries. Its causes are currently unknown.

Professor Michael Levin, one of the authors of the study from the Department of Paediatrics at Imperial College London said: “Sadly, all the hospitals in the UK frequently see children with Kawasaki Disease. A child whose coronary arteries are damaged in early childhood faces a lifetime of uncertainty and risk and we desperately need better treatments to prevent long term heart problems in those affected. We hope our new study will help us to reach this goal.”

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