MORE than 200 mourners packed into Worcester Crematorium to remember a "happy young woman" who was killed in a car crash last week.

There were so many people, of all ages, at the funeral of 17-year-old Joanne Bibby yesterday that some had to stand outside the crematorium and listen to the service on a loudspeaker.

Joanne, who lived in Bearcroft Avenue, Warndon, was one of four teenagers killed on the A449 Kidderminster to Worcester road on Sunday, December 10.

Her parents Linda and Steve and brother Tim were at the service along with her grandparents and many friends.At the family's request, many of the mourners brought a single flower and wore brightly coloured clothes and scarves.A white coffin carried on a horse-drawn hearse bore floral tributes with one spelling out the word sister' in yellow flowers.As it was taken into the crematorium, the Percy Sledge song When A Man Loves A Woman played out.

The Rev Peter Holzapfel, who conducted the service, described Joanne as a young woman who lived life to the full and was loved by all who knew her.

He told mourners she adored horses and had planned to go to Pershore College of Agriculture to study as an equine veterinary nurse and said he could not answer the question of why she had died so tragically.However, he urged those mourning for her to "go for it" in life, as he believed the teenager would have wanted them to and said: "What made Jo, Jo will never die."He read out a tribute by Joanne's mother Linda, which described a happy young girl who loved her horse Pete and who would ring to say goodnight every evening.A tribute from her father Steve was also read out and he spoke of his memories of a much loved daughter who was also a friend.The song Stay by Shakespear's Sister, one of Joanne's favourites, was played before the congregation sang Morning Has Broken.The family requested any donations should be given to the Bransbury Home of Rest for Horses.

Joanne was killed along with three friends, Stephanie Goodall, 16, Martyn Pickering, 18, and Kyle Gadsby, 18, when the car they were travelling in hit a tree.

Today, mourners were due to gather in Kempsey for the funeral of Stephanie.