Work friends of accident victim Chardre Yawana Outerbridge Young paid tribute to her yesterday and said she would be dearly missed by everyone.

Staff at Gibbons Company, where Chardre had worked for three months as a sales assistant in the bedding department, said in her short time at the company she had become very well-liked and well respected.

Helen Gallagher, buyer for the home furnishings department, said she had thought about 20-year-old Chardre Yawana every day since the road accident in the early hours of December 27, which ultimately took her life.

She said: "Chardre was responsible for our bedding area and she had a real flare and an interest in decorating the section and making sure everything looked its best all the time.

"She was a very pleasant girl. When she smiled, her face lit up, and she was so easy to talk to. She got on with everyone.

"Chardre had not been with us very long, but she was doing fine and she seemed happy.

"I know the accident came as a big shock to everyone in the store, and her death has affected everyone. "If I close my eyes, I can see her face and hear her voice. It's going to be very strange without her."

And floor manager for the home furnishings department Selma Tavares said Chardre had many friends throughout the store.

She said: "She was a very friendly person, and a very likeable person, and a very good worker.

"It has been very difficult for staff. It's a tragic thing. She was only 20 years old and her life has been wasted.

"I suppose, in some ways, we can say it's not really a waste because she is helping several other people because her parts are being donated. But it's a terrible thing. She was so young and had so much to live for. She will be missed."

Chardre suffered severe head, spinal and chest injuries in the accident ten days ago. She was travelling along Middle Road in Paget at about 1 a.m. when she is believed to have clipped the back of a car, which stopped to let an ambulance pass, before colliding head-on with the ambulance.

She remained unconscious in King Edward VII Memorial Hospital's intensive care unit for six days. On Tuesday afternoon last week, she was pronounced dead by doctors who had carried out brain tests on the young woman, which deemed there was no sign of a recovery.

Her mother, Charmaigne Young Laws, and father, Andre Outerbridge, made the decision to donate parts of her body to others who needed them, so her death would not be in vain and so she could live on in others.

A funeral service to celebrate Chardre's life was held yesterday afternoon at the Hamilton Seventh Day Adventist Church in King Street.