A baby has brought joy to her mother a year after the heartbreak of her younger sister's death.

Sadly for Hannah Thea Shepherd, she will never know the aunt from whom she takes her name.

It will be left to her mother, Sarah Yorke, and her dad, Tony Shepherd, to tell her about the bubbly, party-loving girl, who would have made such a fantastic auntie, but who was struck down by meningitis a few days after her 22nd birthday.

When her sister died without warning last February, Ms Yorke, from Bishop Auckland, County Durham, said she felt as though she had lost part of herself.

But, after her baby daughter was born last month, the choice of a name was obvious.

Ms Yorke, now 25, said: "I wanted a family but until then I had been happy to wait. I then realised that life was too short.

"Hannah would have made the typical doting auntie. She loved children and always wanted them herself, but she wanted to get her house sorted out first. If she came back now, I don't think she would believe I would be sitting here with a baby of my own."

Hannah's friends in Spennymoor, where she lived with her fiance John Graham, have kept her memory alive by raising more than £2,000 for meningitis research.

They also gave £1,000 to the South Cleveland Hospital, in Middlesbrough, where she died.

On February 24, two days before the anniversary of her death, her friends will stage a karaoke and drag night at Spennymoor Football Club, starting at 7.30pm. Tickets, priced £5, can be bought from Sue Foster on (01388) 810532