THE mother of stabbed schoolboy Damilola Taylor has died of a suspected heart attack, police said today.

THE mother of stabbed schoolboy Damilola Taylor has died of a suspected heart attack, police said today.

Gloria Taylor, one of Britain's most outspoken campaigners for underprivileged young people, collapsed while walking with her husband Richard in Shooters Hill, south-east London, last night.

The 57-year-old was taken to hospital by ambulance but was pronounced dead a short while later, Scotland Yard said.

Nigerian-born Damilola, ten, bled to death on a stairwell in the run-down North Peckham estate in south London in November 2000 after being stabbed in the leg with a broken beer bottle.

In 2006, teenage street robbers Danny and Ricky Preddie were eventually found guilty of Damilola's manslaughter and jailed for eight years at the Old Bailey.