Rochester was awash with red and white as 100 people gathered to pay their respects to a girl who tragically died, aged just 13.

Monique Bryan passed away after a short battle with leukaemia.

With time to think about her own funeral, she specifically asked that everybody wear red and white. Her family were determined to carry out her final wishes.

The teen passed away in February in her mother’s arm just 13 days after being told the rare form of cancer had returned.

In a moving service on Thursday her mother, Francesca Thompson, paid tribute to her wonderful daughter.

Addressing the packed room at St Justus Church, Rochester, Mrs Thompson said: “Monique was an ordinary girl who had wisdom far beyond her years.

“She was a kind and generous person which twinkled through her beautiful smile. Monique was the biggest of all my babies and she had the biggest heart to go with it.”

She arrived in a horse drawn carriage and her funeral was attended by her family, friends and classmates from Walderslade Girls’ School.

Following the service she was buried at St Margaret’s Cemetery, Maidstone Road.

Monique, from Chatham, was diagnosed with a rare form of leukaemia in May 2014 after suffering with headaches, tiredness and stomach pains.

She spent the next 10 months in and out of hospital having chemotherapy and in October last year she was given a bone marrow transplant.

Francesca, 48, said: “Monique was an inspiration to everyone. She was very witty and she was such a happy child, even when she was going through this terrible illness. She was always positive.

“She was stronger than all of us put together. I think she got some of her strength from her brother from above.”

Monique’s older brother Umar was murdered in south London in 2012 in a case of mistaken identity. Francesca said Monique helped to keep the family together after his death.

When she was told the cancer had returned on February 13, she wrote a list of things she wanted to do before she died.

On her list was a trip to Butlin’s with her friends, go karting with her family, driving a car, having her first alcohol drink and getting a Labrador puppy.

Her family have said any donations will go towards getting the puppy Monique wanted.