Pregnant mother-of-three Claire Fallows (36), of Holcombe Drive, Burnley, died after suffering a blood clot to her lung.

"Everybody loved her and she was a friend to everybody she ever met," said Tom. "She always had a smile on her face and always had time for people. She loved talking and socialising and was a real caring, family person. She was just a beautiful mother and wife with a beautiful smile."

Childhood sweethearts Tom and Claire, who married in 1992, never lived further than two minutes away from each other from when Claire moved to the area as a baby.

A former pupil at St Mary's Primary School and St Hilda's RC High School, Claire was 10 weeks pregnant at the time of her death.

He said their three sons, Gary (17), Tee-Jay (9) and Bobby (1), had been "little rocks" since the death of their mum, but were missing her very much.



"She was absolutely fantastic with the kids and we were all looking forward to the birth of our fourth.We were so different, but it always worked so well. We never moved away from the area and she had so many friends, especially around here," he said.

Brought up in Belvedere Road, Claire, a cleaning supervisor at Blackburn Police Station, was adopted from a family in Manchester and found her biological parents 15 years ago.

Despite reports stating she had suffered heart problems, she had no history of medical problems and her death was a shock.

The funeral will take place at 10-30 a.m. on Wednesday at St Mary's RC Church in Yorkshire Street.

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