THE daughter of a retired Gwent headmaster has died from cancer - just a week after giving birth to her second child.

Sarah Heathorn, daughter of former Ebbw Vale Comprehensive head Mostyn Phillips, died at her home in Germany on September 6 with her family around her. She was 36.

Her body was brought back to Wales last week and she was buried at Ebbw Vale Cemetery on Friday.

The funeral service was held at Bethesda Chapel in Llangattock, where Sarah married her husband Andrew six years ago.

This week her family paid tribute to the brave and devoted mother, who leaves a two-year-old daughter Emily and baby Joshua.

Mr Phillips told the Argus his daughter had been delighted at the prospect of having a second child but had been unwell during the pregnancy, suffering from backache and breathlessness. But her symptoms were put down to her pregnancy, and the cancer - of the breast, liver and spine - was only diagnosed a week before she died.

Sarah went into labour naturally the day after her diagnosis, giving birth to Joshua by Caesarean section.

She had not been due to give birth until November and Joshua weighed three and a half pounds at birth.

Her grieving parents, who live in Victoria Park, Ebbw Vale, said Joshua is still in hospital in Munich although he is said to be doing well.

"Sarah wasn't a smoker and lived a flawless lifestyle," said Mr Phillips. "She walked regularly and was absolutely devoted to her little girl."

Her mother Marcia added: "She was always a very happy child, with shiny hair and a lovely smile."

She said Sarah was a talented artist with "exquisite taste" and that she was a very independent woman who had been very brave during her short illness.

Sarah was the eldest of the couple's five daughters. Her sisters Catherine, Rachel, Rebecca and Emma - to whom she was said to be very close - flew to Germany to join their parents and visit her while she was ill, sadly arriving too late to see her alive.

Sarah attended Ebbw Vale Comprehensive and then studied for a degree in history and art at the Uni-versity of Kent in Canter-bury, where she met her husband.

She taught at a primary school in Birmingham for several years before she and her husband moved to Germany, with his job at BMW, in 2000. The couple had been due to come back to live in Cirencester later this year and Mr Heathorn has now returned to Germany with his young daughter to continue making arrangements.

Mr Phillips said: "They met at university and they were very happily married and very alike - if they had looked forever, they wouldn't have found anyone else to who they were so well suited."

He added his "gentle-natured" daughter, who loved children, would be very much missed - and that the number of people at her funeral was testament to how many friends she had made. Her best schoolfriend Alison Davies flew from Dubai to attend the service.

* Pictured: Sarah Heathorn with her daughter Emily