Sister of Cirencester crash victim pays tribute to her “best friend” (From Wilts and Gloucestershire Standard)

Sister of Cirencester crash victim Karen Lindsell pays tribute to her “best friend”

3:00pm Sunday 3rd February 2013 in News By Ian Craig

THE sister of South Cerney mother Karen Lindsell who was killed in a car crash on Boxing Day has paid tribute to her “best friend”.

Karen – who was also known by her married name Hartshorn – was killed in a crash on the A419 outside Cirencester’s Royal Agricultural College.

Karen’s sister Debra told the Standard her entire family had been devastated by the loss.

“I’ve lost my best friend and my sister at the same time,” she said. “It’s completely devastated our family, we’re all in pieces.”

She added her sister had been a doting mother to her 11-year-old daughter Katie.

“She was a great mum,” she said. “She absolutely adored Katie and did so many things with her – they were more like best friends than mother and daughter.”

Karen, 50, worked weekends at Tesco in Kingsmeadow but spent the majority of her free time with Debra and her family in Stonehouse.

Debra said: “She spent a lot of time here – she even had her own bed here. In fact she was on her way here when she died.

“She would always spend Christmas with us but cancelled at the last minute this year.

“The last time I saw her was at my son’s birthday on December 22.” She added the family were extremely grateful to all the people and organisations that had helped them since Karen’s death, especially Maxine, assistant to Tesco’s chief operations officer, and the paramedics from Great Western Air Ambulance who had airlifted Karen to hospital after her crash.

She said she hoped Karen’s memory would carry on in the people who knew her as the lively life of the party.

“Karen was my big sister but in later years the roles reversed,” she said. “I got married and had kids before she did and she was always a great support to me when I needed her.”