NEW Year's Day brought a haunting mixture of elation and grief for a Ribbleton family.

For as Shaun Conlon celebrated the birth of his baby daughter with wife Susan at Sharoe Green Hospital, yards away at Royal Preston, his dying sister Caren was saying goodbye to loved ones.

Devoted mum-of-three Caren Kilpatrick, aged 28, was surrounded by family members when she died at around 9am.

Brave Caren had fought off cervical cancer three years ago but it returned last February to her stomach, liver and bowel.

Now the newest addition to the Ribbleton family - Shaunna Caren - will carry on the name in memory of the auntie she never met.

The close-knit family is devastated at the death. Caren's father John fought back tears as he talked about his loss and said: "Unless you've gone through this pain yourself you don't know what it's like.

"It's tearing me apart inside. The pain is too much - I'm doubled over with it. I just wish she was back with us.

"The family couldn't be any closer and everybody is hurting. Caren's husband Michael had been with her 24 hours a day, every day. He's taken it badly."

John paid tribute to his cherished daughter who was one of six children, and said: "She was a lovely girl who thought the world of her young family."

Caren's youngest boy Tyrone, aged five, has been told his mother has gone to heaven but is too young to take it in. Her other children Aaron, aged 12, and nine-year-old Derry are said to be distraught.

A service was held at the Blessed Sacrament Church in Ribbleton followed by a burial at Preston Cemetery.

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