A STOURPORT teenager who died from a brain haemorrhage less than a year after returning from the war in Iraq is to be awarded a posthumous medal for her role in the conflict.

Signaller Victoria Turner will be recognised by the Army for her services during the 2003 campaign, where she helped set up vital lines of communication close to the front line.

The 19-year-old is among the first service personnel to be awarded the Gulf Medal for her efforts during the first three months of the war, codenamed Operation Telic. All those who took part in the operation will receive the medal.

More than 100 colleagues, family and friends are expected to see the medal awarded at a special service on Saturday at St Bartholomew's Church in Stourport, where her father, Mark, is the rector.

Colleagues are expected to deliver moving eulogies to the teenager while her 14-year-old sister, Rachel, will play the flute.

Her mother, Marlene, said the service would be a "celebration of her life" and a fitting tribute to the athletic pupil, who returned from Iraq in June, 2003.

The service comes just over a year after Victoria, a member of the Royal Corps of Signals, suffered a brain haemorrhage at her York barracks. She died in hospital the next day, April 9, 2004.

She joined the Army at 16 and was posted to Kuwait in January, 2003, two months before the invasion began, to set up masts and cabling.

Her mother said: "You go to war - there is a possibility that they don't come back but for her to come back from something so horrendous and then to literally drop dead is hard to cope with because it is sudden. There is no reason for it."

The anxious family watched television news "24 hours a day" during the conflict. In one telephone conversation with her, soldiers were heard shouting "gas, gas, gas" and the phone cut out. It was two weeks before the family knew she was safe.

Mrs Turner said: "I can't believe she's gone. She was so fit and healthy and happy."

Mr Turner said: "Because of her going to Iraq and because there was a chance she might not come back, she had already expressed her wishes as to what she would like at her funeral and what should be done in memory of her."

Speaking from the family's Dunley Road, Areley Kings home, which is decked with pictures of the teenager, Mrs Turner said: "It is going to be a happy lively service because that is what she would have wanted."

Mr Turner said: "I am pleased but it is sad she is not here to receive it personally."

Victoria, who went to school in Lincoln before the family of seven moved to Stourport in 2003, "always had a smile on her face," said Mrs Turner.

She was on course to become one of the Army's youngest Lance Corporals and there was talk of her attending prestigious military college, Sandhurst, added her father.