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

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

The 19-year-old, who was from Stourport-on-Severn, is among the first service personnel to be awarded the Gulf Medal for her efforts during the first three months of war, code-named 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 service on Saturday at St Bartholomew's Church in Stourport, where her father, Mark, is 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 for Victoria, a member of the Royal Corps of Signals, who suffered a brain haemorrhage at her York barracks in April 2004 and died in hospital the next day.

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: "If they go to war there is a possibility that they won'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."

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 Areley Kings home in Dunley Road, Mrs Turner said: "It is going to be a happy, lively service because that is what she would have wanted."