A HORSE-drawn carriage led the funeral cortege of a young North-East woman who was killed in a head-on car crash weeks before she graduated from university.

Hollie Brown, 20, of Gateshead, turned her back on a modelling career and had just finished a course at the Royal Agricultural College in Cirencester.

Her funeral took place yesterday at St Andrew's Church, in Stanley, County Durham, and was attended by hundreds of mourners.

Family friend Chrissie Clark said: "She was beautiful on the outside, but also radiated an inner beauty on the outside.

"She was a free spirit and grew up riding horses and loved the countryside.

"We all have memories of her love and that is demonstrated by the presence of people here today.

"We remember the happiness that Hollie brought to our lives."

Ms Brown was the niece of former Northern Echo journalist Yvonne Ridley, and appeared in Paris Vogue as a teenager after being spotted by a modelling scout in Covent Garden, in London.

She died on the A696 two miles north of Belsay, Northumberland, when her silver Land Rover Freelander was in collision with a lorry at 12.15pm on July 6.

The service started with the Roy Orbison song Pretty Woman and the congregation sang along in tribute to Ms Brown.

The Reverend Austen Johnston encouraged the congregation to "give it some welly" when the organist started the opening bars of the hymn Lord of the Dance.

He said: "Her life was lived to the full and she touched so many people's lives.

"She was one of those incredible people who managed to make friends easily.

"She used to love to give to others and was such good fun to be with."

The coffin was carried from the church to I'll Be There For You, the theme tune from her favourite television programme, Friends.