Carol Nickels couldn’t have been prouder when she found out her teenage daughter had won the ‘best smile’ award at her school prom.
But rather than celebrate the victory with 15-year-old Faye, all Carol was left with were photographs and memories of her infamous beaming expression.
Faye died two weeks after being diagnosed with a rare genetic illness just months before the milestone occasion at Campsmount School.
But in a touching tribute to the teen whose smile was said to “light up any room” she was honoured with the award and remembered fondly by pupils who released bright blue balloons into the sky in memory of their friend.
Carol said: “I thought it was lovely that she had won the award, she did have a smile that would light up any room.
“No matter what she was going through she always had a smile on her face.”
Medical experts told Faye’s family they had never seen anyone else in the world with the specific mutation of the incurable mitochondrial disease that was attacking every cell in her body.
The condition that Faye was born with was only picked up after she began having seizures following a kidney transplant.
