A TRUST fund has been set up for the children whose mother collapsed and died as she was getting them ready for school.

Lynette Mulenga, aged 33, died after a heart attack while she was preparing breakfast for her young family.

The previous night, as the BEN reported, she had been trying on her wedding dress and she was due to get married in May.

Family and friends, as well as her husband to be, packed Claremont Church on Friday for Lynette's funeral. The North West Community Choir, of which Lynette was a member, sang at the service. Among the mourners were Lynette's young children, Samantha, nine, Godfrey, seven, and Carissa, five. They have lost a mother who was well liked and respected throughout the community of Little Lever, where she ran an after-school playgroup, and Halliwell, where she lived on Crumpsall Street.

The trust fund has been set up for the children to try and provide them with financial security later in life.

It has been started by Melanie Price, a close friend of Lynette's.

She said: "The children have handled the situation amazingly well. They are so well mannered and polite, and that is because of the mother who raised them. They are being comforted by the family at the moment." Lynette's brother, Chinode, added: "I am being strong for the children because that is what they need.

"Physically Lynette may have gone but her presence will live on in her children."

Lynette, originally from Uganda, was sent to England by her late parents to further her education.

She was a member of the East Lancashire Community Church, which meets at Ladybridge, and was a tireless worker in the local community. She even went to Africa with best friend Melanie, an aid worker, to take supplies to the needy.

Donations to the trust fund for her three children can be made by sending cheques to Colin Raynor Solicitors, Blackburn Road, Bolton; made payable to "Mulenga Children Trust Fund".

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.