A beloved mum with a lust for life" has died with coronavirus at just 57, leaving her family heartbroken.
Catherine Mehdaoui was battling lung cancer when she passed away in hospital with coronavirus on October 31.
The mum-of-one was described by her son Daniel as someone who genuinely loved life and thrived on being around others.
Daniel, 33, has set up a gofundme page to help cover the costs of his mum's funeral, said Catherine "was always putting others first and would never let anyone down."
He said: "She wasn't ready to go, she was only 57".
The 57-year-old, from Garston, had a rich and full life and loved meeting people from different cultures, Daniel said.
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A big music and gardening lover, Catherine was born in Garston before living in west London in her early 20s.
Working in hotels in London and in Liverpool, Catherine came home later in life and was very close to her mum, Margaret Minett and only son, Daniel.
He said: "We relied on each other and helped each other through the bad times and enjoyed the good times.
"There was never a time when she wasn't smiling.
"She was always a bit of a traveller, she loved different cultures. That was the special thing about her, she'd been to India, Nigeria, Dubia, St Lucia, Jamaica.
"She did that for the love of her life, James, who died in 2014."
Daniel added: "She just loved life, and she always loved meeting new people. That was a big part of her life, meeting and mixing with new people from different cultures and backgrounds. She never, ever judged anyone.
"She never saw someone and thought she'd have a problem with them. She was very open and genuinely friendly to anyone she met."
Daniel said his mum would tell him stories about her adventurous and outgoing life spent experimenting with different fashion trends.
Catherine had an eclectic taste in music, and Daniel said: "She had a rich sense of humour. At times she could be very serious and then she'd come out with crazy jokes. She loved her music and was very much into reggae and ska. She was a bit of a punk back in her youth when she was a kid.
"She liked the punk scene and has always been a bit kind of crazy in terms of her appearance and her sense of style.
"She was doing things outside the social norm and wasn't afraid. I remember times when she shaved her head, which was unusual for someone in the 90s. She did it deliberately just to be different.
"She had some crazy stories from her youth."
More recently, Catherine was sadly diagnosed with terminal lung cancer.
But Daniel said she was "a fighter" and the pair were hoping to make memories this Christmas, with maybe even a nice holiday to Wales before she passed away.
He said: "Even though we were told the cancer was terminal, she went through the treatment and she was always a person that hungered for life. She wasn't ready to go, she was only 57.
"She decided there and then she wanted to fight. We had it in our head that we'd have one last Christmas."
While receiving treatment for the cancer, Catherine sadly contracted coronavirus and later died after testing positive for the virus.
Daniel has since set up a gofundme page to cover his mum's funeral costs and give her a special send-off.
Writing on the page, he said: "She was a special person with a witty personality, those who knew her knew she could also be stubborn, she often went out of her way to help others in times of need.
"Only those who knew her can feel the loss inside of such a special person.
"And as for myself, she was one of the pieces of my life that still made any sense."
