BOSSES at a Hampshire sandwich factory are raising cash to pay for the funeral of a former employee.

Lucy Charlton from Shirley Warren was killed in the early hours of January 5.

Now former bosses have set up a crowd-funding page to help Lucy's family pay for her funeral.

Cat Skiba, operations manager at Artisarni, a sandwich factory based in Ocean Village, said she had only known Lucy for three months, through Lucy's work at the factory where she worked as a cleaner, and helped out making sandwiches.

But Cat described her as "a really great girl" who was excited about going out on the night she died. Cat, 31, from Chandler's Ford said: "She was such a sweet girl and it was so sudden and unnecessary.

"She had been at work that night. She was singing and dancing and saying how much she was looking forward to going out that night.

"And then the next day I had a call saying what had happened.

"She deserves a really nice send-off."

Cat added: "She had a great attitude. She always had a big smile on her face.

"She had had a hard life, her mum had passed away. I knew she had had a lot of problems in the past but she was putting things behind her.

"She was turning her life around."

After speaking to a member of Lucy's family Cat wanted to help raise money to pay for the funeral costs and set up a crowdfunding page.

If you would like to donate go to https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/in-memory-of-lucyc

As reported the 26-year-old was involved in a collision with a white Ford Fiesta on The Avenue.

Police cordoned off the scene of the crash, which occurred near a bus stop outside buildings owned by Choice Financial Solutions and the charity Solent Mind.