Hundreds of friends and relatives attended the funeral of Megan Cobby, who lost her six-year battle against leukaemia.

The eight-year-old died on September 26 after picking up an infection and spending three days on a life support machine.

Megan's funeral was fit for a princess. Her white coffin was brought to Woodvale Chapel, Brighton, in a horse-drawn hearse yesterday.

The grey, dappled horses were dressed with black feathers and wore red roses in their tails.

Many well-wishers wore lilac, Megan's favourite colour. Her name was spelt out in flowers at the side of her coffin and her playmates and two brothers carried lilac fuchsias.

The coffin was carried into the chapel by pallbearers to the sound of one of Megan's best-loved songs, One For Sorrow, by Steps. Her mother, Julie Finnemore, who had hoped Megan was on the road to recovery after donating her own stem cells, was consoled by her mother, Maureen.

There were so many mourners, many had to stand outside the chapel and listen to the service on loudspeakers.

Nurses and staff from the Royal Alexandra Hospital for Sick Children and the Royal Sussex County Hospital, both in Brighton, and the Great Ormond Street Hospital in London paid their respects to the little girl they had looked after since she was a toddler.

Father George Butterworth opened with words for the many who were weeping. He said: "It's OK to cry and it's OK to be vulnerable."

After singing The Lord Is My Shepherd, the mourners listened as Fr Butterworth paid tribute to the bravery of Megan, from Meadowview, Brighton.

He said: "Every life in this chapel and outside has been touched by Megan in one way or another.

"We have to go back just eight short years to when her nan, Maureen, said to me of her birth, it was like Megan's mother, Julie, being born again. Megan has touched many lives since that day.

"She was loved, not only by everyone in this chapel and outside, but by all the children at her school and who she played with. Anyone who came into contact with her loved her.

"When Megan entered a room, everyone knew about it because she was that kind of little girl. She was so full of life, so full of love and joy. Although she had a heavy cross to bear, she carried it with bravery and cheerfulness.

"When she gave you a kiss, she would fling her arms around your neck and almost squash your face.

"Even when she was undergoing strong treatment at the hospital, it was for the other patients in the hospital that she worried and cared for."

Fr Butterworth went on to praise the bravery of Megan's mother.

He said: "She was the best of mothers who would go to the ends of the Earth for her little girl because she loved her.

"Her love will grow stronger and stronger. Julie did everything for her and more. She made Megan's life, and all her children's, special. They were inseparable. When you saw Julie, you saw Megan."

His words were followed by The Spice Girls' song Goodbye. Candles glowed around the coffin as family members joined Fr Butterworth at the front of the chapel to say prayers for Megan.

She was buried at Angel Corner, an area of Bear Road cemetery reserved for children.