A FUNERAL service will be held this Friday for a heavily-pregnant young mother who died in a road accident.

Jeanette McKenna, 33, of The Copse, Accrington, is believed to have been heading for Queens Park Hospital to give birth to her second child when she lost control of her car on Shadsworth Road at 7.30am on New Year's Eve.

She was pronounced dead at the scene and taken to hospital where doctors lost a battle to save her unborn baby girl.

Jeanette's family believe that in her excitement to have her baby she jumped in her car and set off to the hospital but must have had a contraction and lost concentration.

She leaves three sisters and six brothers including her twin, Paul McKenna.

Jeanette was a full-time mother to her son Joshua, four, but had previously worked as a shop assistant in Burtons, in the Accrington Arndale Centre.

She had also trained as a hairdresser at Blackburn college after completing her formal education at St Anne's RC Primary School, Sandy Lane, and Mount Carmel RC High School, Wordsworth Road.

She enjoyed horse riding, swimming and generally keeping fit and her appearance won her several accolades, including Blackburn Carnival Queen 1990.

Joshua will now live with his father, William Laughland, 34, who he was with at the time of the accident, and grandmother Jan, in Belfield Road.

Jeanette's body is set to be taken to St Anne's RC Church, Cobham Road, Accrington, tomorrow evening where prayers, led by Father Seamus Quigley, will begin at 6pm.

Requiem Mass will then be celebrated on Friday at 10am followed by internment at Accrington cemetery.