“If one good thing can come out of me losing my beautiful girl it is that they lower the screening age for cervical cancer.”

These were the words of grief-stricken Annette Bonfield, whose daughter Jamie-Lee Bonfield, died aged 26 after a heartbreaking battle with the disease at Forest Holme Hospice in Poole on September 25.

The former Purbeck School student, known to most just as Jamie and who lived in Swanage’s High Street with her young family, was diagnosed shortly after Christmas 2014 after her first routine smear test.

After a hysterectomy and enduring courses of chemotherapy and radiotherapy, it was hoped that Jamie would recover.

However, she started experiencing stomach pains again and fresh tests showed the cancer had spread to her bowel, small intestines and stomach.

Jamie was told she had just weeks to live and would have to say goodbye to her children – Gracie, four, and 14-month-old Harlie.

She also leaves behind her partner Andy, sister Saffron and mum Annette.

Annette said the family has been left devastated by Jamie’s death, a feeling intensified by their belief it could have been avoided if she had been offered a smear test earlier.

“By the time Jamie was tested the cancer was already well advanced,” said Annette. “It just all came too late. She had no signs of cancer. She seemed well so when she got the results it came as a shock.

“If she had been tested at 18 – I’m not saying it definitely would have been prevented – but she would have had a much better chance.

“I don’t want others to go through what we’re going through – two little children growing up without their mum.

“She was such a wonderful mum, she had a wicked sense of humour and I don’t know what we’re going to do without her.”

It is estimated that early detection and treatment prevents 75 per cent of cervical cancers.

However, under the NHS Cervical Screening Programme, smear tests used to identify those most at risk are not available to women until they reach 25.

This came after an official recommendation in 2003 to increase the age from 20.

In 2008 the NHS began offering girls aged 12 and 13 the vaccination for HPV, the virus responsible for 99 per cent of cervical cancer cases.

But Jamie’s mum says this is not good enough and is calling for smear tests to be offered to younger women again.

Last year, the death of 19-year-old Sophie Jones garnered national attention after it was revealed she had been denied a smear test because of her age. This led to a government petition calling for the screening age to be lowered attracting more than 300,000 signatures, prompting a parliamentary debate.

To support Jamie’s family visit facebook.com/Jamie-Lees-fundraising-page-889233274459927 or donations can be made at crowdfunding.justgiving.com/Jamie-LeeFund