VILLAGERS came out in force to support Mike and Jenny Davies as the distraught parents said a final farewell to their second child in five years.

Hundreds of mourners of all ages turned out for the funeral of popular young mum, 21-year-old Louise Davies.

The close-knit Lydbrook community packed into the Holy Jesus Church for a dignified, traditional ceremony to celebrate her life.

Their numbers were swollen with people from across the Forest who came to say farewell to the pretty young mother who died in a car accident with a bus just five years after the death of her brother.

Family friend Callum Robin told around 350 mourners that life was going well for caring Louise when she died in the car crash at Littledean.

She had recently found the 'love of her life' in a young man named Adam, settled down with her son Callum in a house of their own in Cinderford and was on the way to achieving her ambition of becoming a nurse after getting a job as a healthcare assistant at Gloucestershire Royal Hospital.

The congregation heard that never a day went by without family-loving Louise speaking to her mother, but she was also a real daddy's girl.

Since the death of brother Gareth, 23, who was knocked down by a car in Redmarley while working as a bin man in 2006, the three of them had become even closer and arranged charity nights for the air ambulance at Lydbrook Social Club.

Mourners were told that Louise had been a wonderful mum to baby Callum who is just 20 months old and now living with his grandparents.

Despite her young age, the service was very traditional and dignified with hymns instead of rock anthems and black rather than colourful clothes.

The only break with tradition was at the end when the Abba song Slipping through my fingers was played as Louise's coffin was carried out of the church by pall bearers.