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Jackie Williams, mother of Kyomie, with other family members

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Family and friends have paid tribute to the bubbly and popular 12-year-old schoolgirl who died of meningitis last week.

Kyomie Williams, of St Thomas Street in Oxford, died at the John Radcliffe Hospital on Friday, a day after being admitted to the intensive care ward.

Her mother, Jackie Williams, has described the shock of losing her youngest daughter to the bacterial strain of the disease, something she never suspected when Kyomie was taken ill a week ago.

She said: "I will always remember her as my baby princess that I have lost. She meant the world to me, my little girl Kyomie."

Kyomie, who has a 24-year-old sister Terlisa and a 21-year-old brother Gavin, was a huge fan of sport and played football, cricket and rugby, as well as regularly going swimming, ice skating and roller-skating.

Her mother, 46, said: "She was an outgoing girl, she was full of life and very active. She loved her sports.

"She was loveable. They used to call her Gangsta Kyomie, she was just the number one. She was a very, very bubbly person.

"She loved cooking, she loved doing her black pudding and sausages for her nanna. She was a very helpful child."

Kyomie was taken ill last Wednesday, feeling sick and unable to look at the light.

By Thursday, Miss Williams said, she was "burning up like a fire" and the 12-year-old then collapsed.

An ambulance was called and, as paramedics helped Kyomie down the stairs, she hit her head on the bannister.

Kyomie's mother added: "That was when she went funny and didn't know anyone. We got into the ambulance, me and Kyomie, and we got to the hospital, and just as we got there they said she had stopped breathing."

Doctors put Kyomie on a ventilator and told her mother that her brain was swelling.

Miss Williams said: "They told me that she was brain dead and that if she did survive she would be like a cabbage."

She added: "I knew I would never see my daughter again. It wouldn't be fair, especially when she was so healthy."

Family friend Kirsty Merrit said: "I was with Jackie when she had Kyomie. I never thought I would be with Jackie saying goodbye like I did, not at such a young age."

Tributes to Kyomie have poured into her grandmother's home in Barton, in the shape of cards, flowers, poems, banners, and even home-made T-shirts.

Miss Williams said: "It is beautiful to see all her friends around who had respect for her. I have got to say thank you for all the donations everybody has given me from Barton and all over the place."

Friends and family have been gathered together in the days since the tragedy to talk about and remember the 12-year-old and her infectious smile.

Kyomie's cousin, Deloris Kelly, 43, said: "She was unique. You won't get another like her. She is going to be badly missed.

"She was very popular. The amount of children who came to the hospital from the school, it was quite overwhelming. There was about 20 of them at one time."

Jordan Collins, a friend of Kyomie's since she was six, described her friend as "the light of day".

She added: "It is not going to be the same."

Jordan, 15, along with 18-year-old Kelly Jaycock, are among those who have written poems in memory of Kyomie.

She said: "I just wanted to show everyone how much we would miss her."

The funeral is to be held at the Church of the Holy Family in Cuddesdon Way, Blackbird Leys, Oxford, on Friday, November 24, at 11am.

You can add your message now to our online tributes page.

8:55am Thursday 16th November 2006

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