A YEAR ago the nightmare that haunts every parent came horrifyingly true for a young North-East mother.

Michelle Aldworth's world was shattered when her bubbly, bright little daughter who loved dancing and dressing up, died following one of those senseless accidents that happens too often on our roads.

Leonie Shaw, known as Lollie, was just six, the middle of Michelle's three adored daughters, when she was taken from her in appallingly cruel circumstances.

Crossing the road to buy sweets near her home in Bishop Auckland, County Durham, she was mown down by a hit-and-run driver in front of her friends.

The death of any child is shocking, but Leonie's tragedy was compounded when the driver, 34-year-old Colin Meek, left her to her fate to save his own skin.

Knowing the brakes of his Rover were little more than useless, he fled with his girlfriend, Emma Lee, after first stopping and taking a few steps towards the stricken child.

Meek's callous act sparked outrage across the country. Leonie's friends and relatives filled railings next to the road with flowers and toys and tributes were paid at her school, St Andrew's Primary.

Michelle, 34, summoned up all her courage to be in court when Meek, a known drug user with a violent past, was sentenced to four years in prison after admitting causing death by dangerous driving and other traffic offences after the Crown Prosecution Service withdrew an initial charge of child cruelty.

Ever dignified, Michelle refused to accept a mumbled apology from Meek and will not discuss him even now.

"He means nothing to me. I had my day then," she said as she chose the anniversary of her daughter's death to talk for the first time about her short life.

Michelle and her other daughters Jade, 11, and Emily, three, have since moved house and are trying hard to rebuild their lives.

Even though she has never lived there, Leonie's spirit fills the family's new home on the edge of the Woodhouse Close Estate.

She loved posing for the camera, and she smiles out from the photographs which fill the front room mantlepiece and shelves, looking every inch the double of her pretty, blonde-haired mother.

The dolls she loved and all her clothes, including the lime green disco outfit she wore when she won her first, and only, dancing competition, are locked away in the attic because Michelle cannot bear to part with a thing.

During her bleakest moments she still cannot face the dreadful realisation that her little girl has gone and only recently accepted counselling to help her through her grief.

She said yesterday: "She was the best. There will never be anyone like her and she will never be forgotten.

"She loved dancing and won the first competition she ever entered. She was full of life but she could be quiet as well.

"She always said she would never leave home and would always stay with me, but she did.

"Now, some days I can't face getting up in the morning but I have to go on. You just have to get through it.

"Sometimes I just try to blank it out but it doesn't go away and it never will.

"The girls have lots of friends and cousins and the whole Aldworth family for support.

"I want to thank everybody who sent messages and helped us. The police were great all the way through."