YESTERDAY should have been a landmark in the life of a gifted young girl with the world at her feet.

Catherine Longstaff was just 15 but she dreamed of being a doctor. She should have been on the threshold of her adult life yesterday, enjoying her last official day at school before GCSE exams.

Instead, Catherine's family and friends are preparing for her funeral on Monday, mourning the loss of a golden life needlessly cut short, police believe, by her involvement with drugs.

Catherine died a week ago today, two months short of her 16th birthday. Her mother, Olwen, found her lifeless in bed at the family home in Chatsworth Avenue, Bishop Auckland.

Until the last few months she had been a star student who shone at everything she did.

Before she left King James I Community College, in her home town of Bishop Auckland, she was due to collect a record of her many achievements in and out of the classroom.

Now, her former classmates are making plans to dedicate a memorial garden in her honour and are too upset to hold their traditional end of school celebrations.

Close friend Patricia Coates, 15, is one of many at the school who have written tributes which will be read out at a funeral service in the Church of the Assembly of God where Catherine worshipped with her family until ten months ago.

Patricia formed the youth action group the Bumble Bees with Catherine and another friend, Deborah Moore, when they were 13 years old.

Together, they transformed a garden at Bishop Auckland's Butterwick Hospice, a cause chosen by Catherine herself because a relative had died from cancer.

Patricia said she had known Catherine since they were 12 and remembered the good times they had together.

"I remember at the time when we were working at the garden it was really hot and she soaked us with a hosepipe and she thought it was funny.

"Now that she's not here, it's like a piece missing."

Another friend, Stuart McClacklin, said pupils and teachers had put money together to buy trees and benches for the memorial garden.

Headteacher Ed Lott said Catherine had made a "real contribution" to the lives of those around her and was just about to take her first steps into adult life.

He said: "She was one of the best and brightest of her year group. Sometimes that is said and it's not always meant.

"She was fully capable of the highest levels of achievement, both academically and socially."