WHEN inspirational Charlotte Holt was told she was dying from cancer, she invited her friends to a gathering ­— asking them to “leave sadness at the door”.

Charlotte – who as a youngster was only given 12 months to live — died at the age of just 31 last Wednesday with her family by her side.

Just four weeks before the former Turton High School student organised a “friends’ gathering”.

Mum Christine L Conroy said: “She invited all of her friends and she asked them to bring memories and photographs.

“She actually said when she sent out the invitations bring a bottle if you like, but leave sadness at the door.

“We were really nervous about it. I didn’t know how I was going to get through it, but it was so warm, fun and loving and she had all of those memories, people wrote them down. She read them all.

“Charlotte said ‘why do we not do this? People would say this at my funeral and I wouldn’t hear it’. It was testament to her, her strength to be able to have done this.”

Charlotte was first diagnosed with cancer at the age of eight after complaining of a sore arm after doing handstands. She was taken to the family GP who referred her for more tests, which discovered she had osteosarcoma.

Her left arm was amputated and even then she was not expected to survive beyond 12 months.

She was only discharged from The Christie Hospital four years ago.

Cancer cruelly returned 18 months ago.

“She and I went to New York, she was celebrating her 30th birthday and I was celebrating being a little bit older,” said Christine, who also has two sons Mitch and Josh with husband Robin Holt, “She had a sore throat.”

Tests revealed she had non-hodgkin's lymphoma, and underwent treatment.

Christine, a positive psychology practitioner, said: “The treatment she was supposed to have was a stem cell transplant, but her body wouldn’t take it, it couldn’t get to the right stage it needed to be in in order to do the transplant, so she made the decision then she wasn’t going to have treatment and obviously we all knew what that meant.”

Charlotte, who also attended Walmsley CE Primary School, was raised in Edgworth with her brothers and when the three flew the nest, Christine and her husband moved to Manchester City Centre, with their daughter settling in Yorkshire after studying at York St John’s University.

She worked at Weatherby Young Offenders Unit.

“Charlotte had always wanted to work with disadvantaged young people.

“She worked with some tough characters but she called them her ‘lovely boys’, she would say to me ‘the thing is ma, no one is bad all the way through. She was 5ft 1 with one arm and she had them just where she wanted them because they respected her,” said Christine, “She honestly believed that education was the key, and she was part of the education team.”

Christine added: “She was offered a job to head up a team at Halifax Prison, which is a Class A category, and she was overjoyed to get that position. She did not get a chance to take up the job, but it almost didn’t matter because a director sent her a letter and talked about the difference she’s made. You couldn’t have said anything better to Charlotte, that she’d made a difference.”

Her mum said Charlotte, who with her brothers would go the family business Queenline Kitchens and Bedrooms after school, never complained about her situation.

“She never said ‘why me?’ never ever did she say ‘why did this happen to me?’ and that is because as a little girl she spent so much time in hospital with kids who were ill and she saw that at eight-years-old. And plus her brothers were not going to let her feel sorry for herself – they have been madly protective of her.

“Charlotte was so philosophical about it all, and the only thing that concerned her was whether she would be able to die at home here and whether she would be in pain. She did die here and she wasn’t in pain.”

Tributes to Charlotte have poured in from all over the world. She worked in Canada on a ski resort and travelled extensively.

“She lived her life to the full, without question she did. She packed more into her short life than a lot of people and the core of her was always this positivity, “ said Christine, “What has come through the thread on Facebook and which has made me the most proud is how positive she always was, how strong she was and how much fun she was and that she made them laugh, how she was the one they always turned to when needed uplifting.”

Christine praised the team of doctors and the palliative care team at St Ann’s Hospice, saying “if we fight for anything in this country it should be for the NHS”.

“Cancer is touching so many of us, but they cure more than they don’t at The Christie. We are lucky we have The Christie, I think it is important people to know that, my daughter unfortunately died of cancer but hers was complicated,” said Christine.

A funeral service for Charlotte will be held at St Anne’s Church Turton where she was christened on September 10 at 2.30pm.

Donations in lieu of flowers should be made to The Christie and Charlotte asked for people to wear or carry something red to raise awareness of blood cancer.

“I am going to do the eulogy,” said Christine, “I told her I would and she knew what I was going to say.”

Christine added: “She said ‘I will always be with you, just not  in the skin.”