The mum of a young student killed in a car crash on the way to Creamfields said the love of her surviving children got her through the tragedy.
Lesley Williams, from Maghull , spoke out about the loss of her daughter, Dominique Williams, ahead of the 10 year anniversary of her death on Thursday (August 29).
Dominique, a dance and performing arts student at Edge Hill University, was in high spirits ahead of the Daresbury music festival on the August bank holiday of 2009.
The 20-year-old had arranged to travel to Creamfields with Newcastle teenager Nicola Edgar, 19, who also died in the crash, after they met on holiday in Greece.
Lesley, now 55, told the ECHO she wants to remind young people that not taking care on the roads can cost their lives.
She said: "Everybody knew Dom. She was such a stunning, vivacious, bubbly person. There was just something about her that everybody remembered.
"On the day there was four of them going, and three of them stayed in the house with us. As girls do they were all getting ready, they were so excited.
"The driver of the car came to get them about 10.30am. I can remember it like it's a video in my head. I said 'you know what I can come with you' and she said 'you know I love you mum but no', joking around.
"I remember her sat in the car and her last words to me were 'I love you millions'. That's what she always said to me. Then the car pulled off."
Not long after leaving Maghull the car Dominique and Nicola were travelling in was involved in a horrific crash on Higher Road, Halewood .
According to reports from an inquest into their deaths , a puncture on a rear tyre caused the car to spin out of control and flip onto its roof, killing Dominique and Nicola instantly.
The two other occupants, Rebecca Crown and Sophie Vicary, survived.
Lesley said her son Liam, then 17, was at Leeds Festival, and her youngest child Danny was also out.
She said: "It was about 2.30pm when there came a knock at the door and of course it was the two policemen.
"They said there has been a fatal accident. I didn't even hear what he said next. You are just like, 'he's got the wrong house, this doesn't make sense.
"Then he said it's Dominique, and I just lost it. He said he had a driving licence, but I didn't understand because she didn't drive, but then I remembered she did have a provisional licence.
"It's like a volcano goes off in your life, and there's all the aftershocks and little eruptions afterwards."
Lesley says panic set in about her other sons and how to get them home before they heard the news.
She said: "Honestly, there's no words. You are not supposed to lose a child, especially one as special as Dom."
Lesley also recalled how, only 48 hours after Dominique's death, the family attended a memorial service at Liverpool Cathedral organised by charity Roadpeace to mark the 12 year anniversary of Princess Diana's death.
When she heard that the organisers planned to mention the incident, Lesley said she "had to be there".
She said: "People said they didn't understand how I could go so soon, but I said I needed to be there, I need to be where all her friends are.
"When I got there it was like I knew every face."
Life has been tough for the family in the decade since, and Lesley says the strain of grief led to the end of her marriage to Dominique's dad Philip, although the pair remain on good terms.
But she says the devastation of that day has been eased by how many people have kept Dominique's memory alive.
In April, the family threw a party to mark what would have been Dominique's 30th birthday party, which was attended by around 100 of her old school and university friends.
She says she can now enjoy memories of Dominique's life.
Lesley said: "I used to look at photos of her and just sob and sob. But I have got better with it and now it makes me smile.
"People said to me 'I don't know how you get up in the mornings. But I have to. I have two sons who Dominique doted on and I thought they have lost their sister, they don't need to lose their mum as well."
