Over 300 people celebrated the life of seven-year-old Imogin Appiah at an poignant funeral service at the Croydon Parish Church.

Devoted mum Sheila Appiah paid tribute to her “shining star” in an emotional letter to her brave daughter who battled leukaemia for ten months.

She said: “I honour you and look upon you with the utmost love and respect. You were, at times, a beautiful handful.”

She spoke about Imogin’s last moments as she lay, dying in her arms.

“I said go to the angels and don’t suffer any more. Her main thing was to console me rather than herself. I will miss her, I don’t feel she is really gone.”

The church was packed with Imogin’s school friends, well wishers and her family who had come to pay their last respects to the brave girl.

Imogin captured the hearts of everyone she came in contact with and many stood up to share their memories of the lively seven-year-old who never complained about her illness.

The community nurses who treated her every week remembered her “always cheeky, sometimes too cheeky for Sheila’s liking. ”

One of the nurses who did not give her name said: “She was full of energy and had a real zest for life.”

Her family remembered how much she loved to dance and how she mimicked her talented mother’s African dances to perfection.

Julie Harris, Imogin’s headteacher at Elmwood Infants and Nursery School, said: “She was full of enthusiasm.

“Her friends found her friendly, kind and thoughtful, her teachers say she was lovely, happy, outgoing and confident.”

The congregation listened to a recording made by Imogin before she died in which she vowed to get better and promised to “listen to what the doctors and nurses tell me”.

She said: “I will fight no matter what, I will fight and fight and fight forever.”

Her favourite Michael Jackson song “Beat it” was played. Many of the children in the congregation danced along to Imogin’s favourite song.

Sheila thanked everyone who had helped Imogin and encouraged more people to register as bone marrow donors at the Afro-caribbean Leukaemia Trust (ACLT) registration drives.

The ACLT was instrumental in trying to find a donor to help save Imogin’s life. As an ethnic minority she had a 1 in 100,000 chance of finding a donor compared to 1 in 5 if she were white.

Orrin Lewis, founder of the ACLT, paid tribute to Imogin and said more people needed to sign the register.

His son Daniel De Gale, who had leukaemia, campaigned tirelessly to get more ethnic minorities to sign the register.

He said: “When she [Imogin] leaves this church and goes to her final resting place, she will have someone close to hold her hand all the time, my son Daniel.”

The ACLT will be holding a bone marrow registration drive on Saturday February 27 at the Whitgift Centre in memory of Imogin Appiah and in support of two-year-old Nevaeh Green who has just been diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia.