A fun-loving young woman severely injured in a road accident last week lost her tragic battle for life on New Year's Day.

Sales assistant Chardre Yawana Outerbridge Young, 20, was officially pronounced dead at 2.55 p.m. on Tuesday - six days after her bike collided with an ambulance - after brain tests showed no sign of a recovery.

Yesterday, her mother Charmaigne Young Laws opened her heart to talk about the loss of her only child, but said she would be ever grateful for the time she had spent with her.

And she said both she and Chardre's father, Andre Outerbridge, and both her stepfather and stepmother, had gained much comfort from the knowledge that her organs were to be donated and she would live on in others.

Although her parents made the decision to let their daughter go on Tuesday afternoon, she was being kept alive yesterday on a life support machine in preparation for the organ harvesting.

It is their hope that their sad loss can become somebody else's gain as they pick up the pieces of their life at the start of 2002.

“We decided to donate her organs, so other people could have a chance of life, or a better life,” said Mrs. Laws.

“We wanted to offer as much as possible - her heart, lung, kidneys, liver, pancreas, lymph nodes, part of her eyes and ears, skin and bone.

“Some of them are not life-saving, but they are life-enhancing, such as her skin for burn victims, and we get a lot of comfort from that.

“It makes us feel better because I know that God works all things out for the best and, even though my daughter has gone, her life can live on in someone else who receives a part of her organs.”

Mrs. Laws, a housekeeper at the Southampton Princess Hotel, and her husband Kent Laws said the decision to donate the organs was not a difficult one.

She added: “My comfort comes from God and my belief. Her body is nothing but dust. It's going to deteriorate in the ground, so it might as well be used for someone else who needs it.

“She had such a free spirit, I can just imagine that who ever gets her parts will feel her spirit. I would certainly like to meet them some day.”

Chardre, a former pupil of West Pembroke Primary and Sandys Secondary schools, and CedarBridge Academy, where she graduated, had remained unconscious in the intensive care unit at King Edward VII Memorial Hospital since the crash in the early hours last Thursday.

She was driving from her mother and stepfather's home in Aubrey Road, Crawl, to her boyfriend's house in Paget when she clipped the back of a car, which had stopped to let an ambulance past, before smashing into the oncoming ambulance.

She suffered massive head, spinal and chest injuries in the accident on Middle Road in Paget.

From the moment her mother was told about the crash, about an hour after it happened, she remained at her bedside night and day, holding her hand, talking and singing to her daughter in the vain hope that she would wake up and be well again.

And she said she was surrounded throughout by Chardre's family, including her devastated father who immediately flew home to Bermuda from vacation in New Jersey when he learned of the news, and the 20-year-old's half sister Cleopa Joell.

But also a source of support was Chardre's many friends, colleagues from Gibbons Company, and her boyfriend Stephan Lightbourne.

She said she had been overwhelmed by their support, and the support of nursing staff. Mrs. Laws told yesterday how her fashion-conscious, football crazy daughter had enjoyed a family orientated Christmas in the days before she died.

For the last year, Chardre had been living with her father and stepmother Shawnette Outerbridge at their Warwick home, but had returned to stay with her mother in Crawl over the Christmas holidays while her father was abroad.

And yesterday, her mother said she had been in great spirits over the holidays and had been her usual happy self.

She said she would remember her daughter, whom she had always referred to as her ‘Honey Bunny', as a very loveable, likeable young woman, who loved to hang out, go dancing, chat, sew, watch soccer - and sleep.

She added: “We had a lovely family Christmas and Chardre Yawana was in good spirits.

“She was a happy girl - a free-spirited child. She was vibrant and always looking for something to do and somewhere to go.

“We had a very close relationship.”

Mrs. Laws continued: “I would either see her or speak to her everyday. We would go shopping or meet up for lunch - we had a giggle together. We were good friends. I will miss her so much.”

Mrs. Laws said she also gained comfort from the fact that her daughter remained unconscious throughout her final days because she was not in any pain.

She added: “At least the last five or six days gave us a chance to accept what was going to come and gave us time to say goodbye.

“I held her hand, read scriptures to her, told her who had visited and all the messages they had left, told her I wished she would wake up so I could hug her again, and how much I loved her. I felt sure she could hear me.

“It was a very long six days. We hoped she would wake up, but knew inside that she wouldn't. The Lord's will was done and I have to accept that.

“When I came away from the hospital yesterday (Tuesday) evening, I felt an emptiness, but I also felt closure. I know they did everything they could for her at the hospital, but to watch the tests that declared her death brought final closure.

“I feel no bitterness at all. I am just very grateful for the short while I had to spend with her.

“I know that she will live on - and that gives me great strength.”

Chardre Yawana was the tenth road fatality of 2001, the accident having occurred on December 27.

Her funeral arrangements are expected to follow in the next day or so.

Police are appealing for the female passenger of the car involved in the collision soon after 1 a.m. last Thursday to contact P.c. Maybury at the Traffic Unit on 295 - 0011.