AROUND 150 mourners flocked to pay tribute to a seven-year-old girl who died from meningitis.

Emily Davidson died cuddling up to her mother Lizzie at the family home in Malvern last Saturday morning.

Mourners turned out in force to pay their respects to the popular schoolgirl, who was a pupil at Grove Infant School in Malvern.

Pink flowers adorned the tiny coffin, which was carried into Worcester Crematorium, Tintern Avenue, Astwood, yesterday, to the sound of Bob Marley's Buffalo Soldier, Emily's favourite song.

Many of the congregation had dispensed with traditional black outfits and donned pink clothes to illustrate Emily's love of Barbie dolls.

Speaking after the service, her mum Lizzie said she was touched by the amount of people who had turned up at the funeral.

"Emily was a beautiful little girl and it's lovely to see that so many people have turned up to pay their respects," she said.

Emily, who lived with her mum, stepdad Mark Davidson, sister Jessica, aged 16, and brother Marcus, 12, had woken up the day before she died saying her legs "felt funny".

Her temperature soared to 104 and she was violently sick and delirious. Her mum says she contacted doctors twice and they reassured her Emily did not need medical treatment.

However, as the little girl's temperature fell, her mum put her to bed and lay down next to her. When she woke in the morning, Emily was dead.

She was taken to Worcestershire Royal Hospital where she was examined by hospital doctors who suspected she had contracted meningiccocal septicaemia.

Emily's mum, and her dad James Turnbull, said they were devastated at the death of their beautiful daughter, who they lovingly referred to as "Dinky Dot".

"She was taken young but she packed so much in," said Lizzie.

Mourners at yesterday's funeral were invited to make a donation to the Meningitis Trust.

An inquest into Emily's death was opened last Wednesday and adjourned to a date to be fixed.