ONE of the monarchy's biggest fans recalled the time she met the nation's favourite matriarch, as she prepared to join a vigil outside Westminster Abbey.

Anita Atkinson, a magistrate and ardent monarchist, indulges her keen interest in the royal family with the biggest collections of royal souvenirs in the world.

The hoard of 1,700 royal books, pictures, trinkets and plates was recently included in the Guinness Book of Records.

It was publicity surrounding her collection, which Anita keeps at her home in Harperley, near Crook, County Durham, that led her to be picked to meet the Queen Mother at St James' Palace, London, in November 2000.

She was asked to accompany Queen Mary's Clothing Guild to the palace, as they delivered knitted garments.

Anita said: "Everybody has been saying on the television how, if you were lucky enough to meet her, she made you feel you were the most important person in the room. That's a fact. She did.

"When she spoke to me, it was as if she was really interested. She was looking straight at me with her head tilted to one side and that smile. There were hundreds of people there, but it was just like there was just me and her. I'm over the moon I got to meet her now, because it's all the more special."

Anita has created a shrine in her home to the Queen Mother with some of her vast collection of memorabilia and she plans to travel to London, to join a vigil outside Westminster Abbey before the state funeral