Memorial for Emma

SCHOOL friends are looking into setting up a permanent memorial to a 14-year-old girl killed by a flu-like illness which then struck her mother and two sisters.

SCHOOL friends are looking into setting up a permanent memorial to a 14-year-old girl killed by a flu-like illness which then struck her mother and two sisters.

Emma Barnett, 14, from Ixworth, near Bury St Edmunds, died last week from an as yet undiagnosed respiratory disease, like influenza or pneumonia, only two days after first becoming ill.

Now pupils at Thurston Community College, where Emma was a student, are considering organising a concert which could raise money for a permanent memorial.

Geoff Barton, vice principal at the college, said: "A group of students are talking about putting on a concert, like a talent show with singing and dancing, to raise money for a permanent memorial at the school such as a tree."

Doctors at the West Suffolk Hospital in Bury St Edmunds are still investigating the cause of Emma's death, on January 22, which has so far only been narrowed down to some kind of respiratory disease.

Soon after the teenager's death her American-born mother Sylvia, and sisters Hanna, 10, and Dana, eight, all came down with the illness leaving only her father, Jerry, unaffected.

All three were admitted to hospital for treatment but both Emma's sisters have been allowed home.

Their mother, Sylvia, is still being treated at hospital where doctors said she was improving slowly and described her condition as stable.

Emma initially complained of a sore throat and temperature, on Sunday, January 21. The following day her temperature had soared to 103F and she was given penicillin and paracetamol.