Mother's grief at daughter's kayak death

Alice will be "sadly missed"

A grieving mother has described how her "caring and fun-loving" daughter was killed while kayaking in south-east Asia.

Mary Glenister, of Cheltenham, said her daughter Alice, 18, was kayaking with friends on the Mekong River in Laos when the boat overturned and she was drowned.

Her friends Chloe Bonsor and Katie Sullivan, both 19, escaped the accident unhurt.

Mrs Glenister said: "She was in a kayak with her friends last Saturday when the rapids pushed the boat into rocks and they were all thrown into the water.

She was the deputy head girl, she played hockey for her school and she had a Duke of Edinburgh Award. That's the kind of girl she was

Mary Glenister

"Alice got caught in the current and got trapped under a rock and she drowned.

"It was a freak accident and thankfully her friends weren't hurt."

Alice had been on a gap year between school and university and was working in an orphanage in Thailand before taking the trip to Laos.

Mrs Glenister said her daughter was "very talented" and had been a top student at Pate's Grammar School in Cheltenham, before leaving last summer.

She was due to start at Nottingham University this summer to study history and politics.

Her mother said: "She was the deputy head girl, she played hockey for her school and county and she had a Duke of Edinburgh Award. That's the kind of girl she was."

In a statement posted on the family website, Mrs Glenister, her husband Malcolm and son Tom said Alice would be "sadly missed".

"We are obviously all devastated by the news. Alice was very special to a lot of people and will be very sadly missed.

"Alice was not only a wonderful person - her warmth, caring and fun loving nature touched us all and the amount of sympathy we have received is a testament to her popularity and her great number of friends."

The statement said Alice was willing to try new things and was "unstintingly generous".

It continued: "It is difficult to put into words what she meant to all of us, and we can only now feel grateful that we were given the chance to know, and love, such an inspiring person."

The family do not yet know when Alice's body will be returned to the UK and a funeral date has not been set.