FAMILY and friends of a young woman who died days before Christmas have raised thousands of pounds for charity in her memory by climbing Snowdon.

Rea Muir from Bruche died aged 22 in December, 11 days before boyfriend Rob Hartley was due to propose to her on Christmas Day.

The former Green Lane Community Special School pupil had been diagnosed with leukaemia just over two weeks earlier, having first fallen ill in August last year.

Now, a team of 60 family and friends have climbed Snowdon together in order to raise more than £7,000 for children and young people’s cancer charity CLIC Sargent.

Mum Lesley Whyte said: “Rea was so popular – her funeral was at St Elphin’s Church and there weren’t enough seats, with people stood up crowded at the back.

“The turnout was unbelievable and the support we’ve had since then has been amazing.

“On the day of Rea’s funeral everyone was discussing how it would be nice to do something in memory of her.

“A lot of my nephew’s friends, who knew Rea very well, do a lot of walking and climbing so it just came about through that.”

Neighbours, family, friends, friends of friends and colleagues of Rea’s dad Tony Muir, who travelled over from Hull, took part in the climb on Saturday, May 6.

The team who climbed Snowdon in memory of Warrington Wolves super fan Rea, who worked in housekeeping at Ryfields Retirement Village in Orford, also included four-year-old Lenny Worrall, six-year-old Jayden McCarthy and seven-year-old Lacey McKay.

Lesley, who had previously climbed Snowdon the day before Mother’s Day, added: “The comradery and banter was amazing – by the end of it all everyone was helping each other and it was just an absolutely wonderful day.

“The young ones were amazing and never, ever moaned – they were brilliant and they just got on with it.

“CLIC Sargent were very good when Rea was poorly – we thought Rea was going to recover and they were going to send her and Rob on a holiday when she was in recovery.

“We found the costs of the funeral hard because you don’t think you’ll ever have to save money up for that – it’s a lot of money, but CLIC Sargent are now trying to help pay towards people’s funerals.

“I just thought it would be lovely to help families that are not in a position to pay such a lot of money, because it hits you like a ton of bricks so it’s such a good cause.”