Family and friends of a young woman who died suddenly have pledged to raise as much money as they can in memory of her for charity.

Jessica Swann, from Felixstowe, was loved by everyone who knew her – a fun-loving, smiley and happy 24-year-old who always enjoyed life and helping others.

Her friends have already raised more than £600 for the East Anglian Children’s Hospices (EACH) Treehouse hospice at Ipswich and plan to carry on holding events as a tribute to her life.

Friend Amber Young, 26, said Jess’s sudden death in June had been an enormous shock to everyone.

She said: “She had fluid on the lung and didn’t know about it. She had been out with friends the night before, went home to bed and never woke up.

“She was such a beautiufl, loving, caring person – always so happy, and a real smiley person, always making others happy.

“Over the past few years Jess and I had done a lot of fundraising for different charities and so I really wanted to carry that on for her, in her memory, and all her friends wanted to do the same.

“We all really want to keep her memory alive.”

Immediately after Jess’s death, Karlene Kennard, Felixstowe Royal British Legion club manager, organised a big fundraiser called Silly Sunday, a fete with karaoke, raffles, refreshments and games, to help her parents Patrica and Bernie Swann, and brothers and sisters Frankie, Gabby, Nicky and David,

A fundraising evening with pyschic medium Ryan Gooding was also held at the club – Jess, a keen darts player, had been a regular at the RBL in Mill Lane – a few days later.

Amber said: “All of Jess’s family and friends particularly want to thank Karlene for what she did – it was amazing. She did it immediately and got everyone together so quickly to help. It raised thousands of pounds to help the family at a very difficult time, including paying for the funeral costs.”

Some of the money raised has been used to pay for a memorial bench bearing Jess’s name at the club.

Amber and around 30 friends also held a fancy dress pub crawl around the town to raise £630 for EACH – it was an event they had staged in previous years and which Jess, who worked as a carer at Cotman House in Felixstowe, loved.

She said: “People were so generous and we cannot thank them enough for their support.”