THE parents of a woman from Great Harwood who was killed after she was in a road smash in Manchester have paid tribute to their daughter.

Vikki Spear, 20, who was in the second year of a psychology degree course at Manchester University, was in collision with a taxi on Wilmslow Road just before the junction with Egerton Road in Fallowfield in the early hours of Sunday 11 March.

She was rushed to Hope Hospital, Manchester, but her condition deteriorated and she died last Wednesday.

This week, her parents David and Madeline, who had kept a bedside vigil praying for their daughter's recovery, were too upset to speak to the press.

But in a statement to the Observer they said: "Vikki was a beautiful and beloved daughter and a loving big sister to Sophie.

"She was so full of life and will be greatly missed by her family and friends."

Vikki was a former pupil of St Augustine's RC High School, Billington.

As well as her parents and Sophie, she was also the granddaughter of John and the late Valerie Spear and Jean Crossley, and a niece of Gillian, Billy, Linda, Paddy and Peter.

A funeral service will be held at Our Lady and St Hubert's RC Church, Great Harwood, at 10am on Monday which will be followed by cremation at Accrington.

The 47-year-old driver of the silver Nissan Primera taxi was not injured.

The road was closed for several hours as a result of the collision.