FRIENDS and family of a mum-of-four who passed away in hospital after falling down the stairs are trying to raise enough money for her funeral.

Paula Hickey from North Swindon was taken to hospital in Bristol on February 3 where she remained in an induced coma in intensive care for six days.

After running tests and realising that she would never regain consciousness due to a severe brain injury, doctors made the difficult decision to turn off her life support machine.

The 49-year-old leaves behind four children: Colin, 23, Paige, 22, Emma, 20, and Lauren, 16.

Emma said: “She was a lovely woman and an amazing mum, she didn’t deserve to go so soon.

“A lot of people knew how caring she was, she worked with disabled children at Uplands for years and she was about to start a new job as a carer because she loved helping other people more than helping herself.

“She was bubbly and funny, she always did her best and she acted more like a sister than a mother

“A couple of weeks ago, she was getting into a taxi for a night out with her partner when she said she’d left something upstairs and went back into the house to get it.

“He thought she’d been in there a while, so he went inside and found her lying unconscious at the bottom of the stairs.

“In hospital, she seemed to be stable for a few days, then it went downhill fast.

“Everyone’s trying to cope in different ways, it feels surreal, you have the occasional breakdown and we all miss her.

“You take people for granted sometimes.”

While helping Paula’s children deal with the shock of losing a parent so suddenly, friend of the family Kylie Walklett set up a fundraising page to try to raise enough money to pay for the funeral.

In just five days, the page has raised £645.

Kylie said: “I don’t want them to struggle to find the money for this - she deserves a good send-off.

“I wouldn’t want to lose my mum at 16, and I always said to Paula that I’d stand by her kids if they ever needed help.

“This was the best thing I could think of doing to help them and I’ll continue to support them after the funeral.

“Paula was my best friend, she was special, she was like a second mum to me and I couldn’t believe it when I found out she’d died.

“I first met her six years ago, we were both quite hard-headed so at first I didn’t get on with her, but then something clicked and I fell in love with her.

“She’d always be there for me if I needed to speak to her and she could always speak to me, we went to bingo together, we worked together at Redhouse Place, we had a laugh.

“I never expected to get such a great response to the gofundme page, she had a lot of friends and she was liked by everyone.”

Emma added: “It’s amazing how much people want to support us, thank you to everyone who has helped and donated, especially Kylie.”

If you’d like to donate, visit gofundme.com/money-to-help-my-friends-kids