Devastated family and friends gathered to say their last goodbyes to tragic Olivia Diamond yesterday.

The 12-year-old, who lived with her family in Moss Hall Road, Accrington, died of acute myocarditis on Thursday, October 8, four days after falling ill with the flu.

Her coffin was taken in a horse-drawn hearse from her old nursery school, Little Tinkers, in Laneside Avenue.

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The cortege then travelled on to Peel Park Primary School, in Alice Street, and then to Accrington Academy in Queens Road West.

Her funeral service was held later, at St Mary’s Roman Catholic Church in Clayton-le-Moors, where mourners had been asked to attend dressed in the way Olivia would have known them.

Hundreds attended the emotional service, led by funeral director Lianna Champ.

She told the congregation: “When you lose a loved one, time seems to stand still. The hurt is almost unbearable but somehow we seem to get through it.

“Grief is a good indicator of love. It cannot exist except where there’s love.”

In a statement read out by Olivia’s aunt, mum Angela spoke of her pride in her daughter.

“You are the bravest girl I have ever known. I look up to the stars for you.

“Every day I will think of you. Every day I will listen for you. Every day I will feel you.”

Some of Olivia’s friends read the poem Death is Nothing at All by Henry Scott Holland, and sang a rendition of Beyonce’s Halo.

And gasps of tears were heard as a home-made recording of Olivia singing Hallelujah was played over the loudspeakers.

Following the service, dozens of pink and purple balloons were released in Olivia’s memory.

On Saturday, it was revealed the youngster was potentially just 12 days away from receiving a life-saving flu vaccine.

Accrington Academy students in Year Seven and Eight — the year group Olivia was in — were set to start receiving their vaccinations yesterday as part of a pre-planned county-wide pilot scheme.

Her mum, Angela, said she now plans to ‘go down every route available’ to see that widespread free vaccinations are introduced as quickly as possible.