A JIGSAW puzzle featuring MP Mo Mowlam was the star prize at a coffee morning in aid of a cancer charity set up in memory of a Redcar schoolgirl.

Katie Neal was six years old when she died last March following a courageous battle against a form of cancer known as medullablastoma tumour, which affects the brain and the nervous system.

Her parents, Martin and Debbie, set up The Katie Trust in May 1999 and have so far raised £32,000 towards the funding of a new research post at the Regional Cancer Research Unit in Newcastle.

A coffee morning at the library on Laburnum Road, Redcar, raised £306 on Monday, when the star tombola prize was the jigsaw puzzle of Dr Mowlam. The Redcar MP had to decline an invitation to attend the coffee morning and instead donated the jigsaw.

Mrs Neal says Katie would be very pleased at the fundraising efforts that are being done in her name.

She said: "She would have been in there helping and doing more than everyone else. She never thought of herself, she was always thinking of others and she never felt sorry for herself.

"She would have loved all of this. It really is her inspiration that makes people come along and support us and do so much to help."

The research post, starting in the new year, will be held by a student whose PhD will be funded for three years by The Katie Trust