A MOTHER whose daughter died in a car crash is urging people not to drink and drive to prevent other families facing the same heartache.

Gina Curnock has been campaigning ever since her 18-year-old daughter Allison died days before Christmas in 1984, following a car accident in Newnham Bridge.

Mrs Curnock, who has four other children - Kaye, Samantha, Mark and Sophie - says Christmas has never been the same since.

"I was devastated at the time and still am," she said. "All you can basically do for the next few weeks is breathe in and out - you really can't do much else at all.

"Christmas is always absolutely awful."

Every year since, Mrs Curnock, who lives in Warndon, Worcester, has put posters up around the community, in surgeries, community centres, and shops.

They feature a picture of her daughter, with an anonymous poem written from the eyes of a girl killed in similar circumstances to Allison.

Mrs Curnock hopes it will make people think twice before drink-driving.

"If that poem stops one person having to go through what we went through, then it'll be worth it," she said.

"People say they know how you feel, but unless they have experienced it themselves they don't know.

"You don't expect to bury your own child - it leaves a huge void in your life.

"The whole idea of the campaign is to make people stop and think and for them not to drink and drive."