FRIENDS of a young Darwen woman who died of stab wounds in a London flat have raised £1,500 to ensure her memory lives on.

Dorothy and Kevin Flanagan are to commission a stone-cut headstone with the money donated by friends of their 22-year-old daughter Charlotte.

Around £500 of the money came from a collection at an American Naval administration base in London.

Many of the people based there became friends with Charlotte because they drank in the pub she lived and worked in -- the Barley Mow, off London's famous Oxford Street.

Charlotte, a former pupil at St Wilfrid's High School, Blackburn, who also worked for a Clitheroe anti-drugs project, was found on New Year's Day with stab wounds to the neck.

She was discovered in a fourth-floor flat above the Barley Mow, where she had lived and worked since moving to the capital last September.

Just hours before she was discovered, she had celebrated the new year with colleagues and friends in the pub

She had planned to work there until the summer before returning to the North West to study to become a nurse.

Many of her friends from London travelled to Blackburn for her funeral in February, and have accompanied Kevin and Dorothy, who live in Darwen, to the Old Bailey every time the man charged with her murder has appeared in court.

Today, Dorothy said: "We were absolutely amazed when we opened the cards and there were cheques totalling £1,500 for us.

"They had been sent by people from the Barley Mow and another pub nearby, called the Rose and Crown.

"About £500 had also been collected from a US Naval base in London because people from there used to drink in the pub and knew Charlotte so well. Her nickname to them was Charlie.

"They have all been devastated by her death and have been a tower of strength to us. The messages they sent us were very touching.

"A lot of the money was raised during a charity event at the pub.

"They held a raffle and when people got their prizes, they handed them back so they could be auctioned off."

The messages which came with the cards said she would always be in their thoughts and that they would never forget the day she died.

Kevin added: "We are going to go to a firm in Suffolk who craft unique, one-off headstones. They stone-cut them and then inscribe poems and things on them. We haven't decided what to put on the headstone yet but it will mention her friends in London.

"Although Charlotte was living in the heart of London, she seemed to be part of a little community there.

"They have been devastated by her death."

Charlotte, who is buried in Darwen Cemetery, had planned to train to be a nurse after spending a year in London.

Previously, she had worked for Blackburn with Darwen's social services department.

Richard Horton, 29, of Walmsley Street, Darwen, has pleaded not guilty to murder and will stand trial at the Old Bailey on September 30.