HEARTFELT tributes have been paid to a student who died just days before her youngest son’s first birthday.

Trainee midwife Lauren Plane, 21, died after being taken to hospital from her home in Swansea, where she had moved from Nelson last summer to chase her dream career.

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There were no suspicious circumstances, South Wales police said.

Her children, three-year-old Seth, and Elijah, who turned one on Thursday, are now being cared for by their grandmother Angela Wearden in her home town.

Lauren’s second cousin Matthew Pickering, of Boulsworth Crescent, Nelson, described her as a “devoted mum”.

The 37-year-old paramedic said: “She was a smart and sweet girl. She always came across as a bit shy. She was not loud or somebody who was in your face.

“There was no indication she was unhappy, which is why this has come as such a massive shock.”

A former Fisher More High School student, Lauren became passionate about becoming a midwife after giving birth to Seth in 2012.

She approached Matthew and his wife Frances, a midwife at Burnley General Hospital, for advice, and completed an access to nursing and midwifery course at Burnley College in 2014.

She also began volunteering at The Family Tree Children’s Centre in Tunstill Square, Brierfield.

Outreach worker Wendy Ireton said: “Everyone here at the Family Tree was very upset to hear this tragic news.

“Lauren was a lovely caring mum and a popular figure at the centre. “Before moving to Wales she was very involved here, helping families for more than a year. “She will be much missed and our thoughts and sympathies are with her family and friends.”

Lauren, who lived in Napier Street, Nelson, took a year off from her education after Elijah was born last June, before moving to South Wales in August.

She signed up for an access to higher education course at Gower College in Swansea, and was due to start university there this September, just weeks after holidaying in Japan with a friend.

Matthew said: “She had a few choices of university and because she liked the uni in Swansea and her uncle [Andrew] lived in the area and also had a young child, she moved there.

“She was definitely devoted to her children. She put them first and she obviously wanted her own career as well, which can be difficult for a young mum.”

Lauren’s friend India Challis, 26, said she was devastated by Lauren’s death and said she received a text message from her shortly before she died saying “love you”.

India said: “She was so happy all the time and looked after her boys so well.

“They were her life, she was just amazing. We had so much fun, she was so funny. Her little boy and my little girl were in Flying Start (early years programme) together.

“We instantly clicked and were inseparable.

“She was so caring she would do anything and everything for you.”

A spokesman for South Wales police said: “Police were called to a house in Delhi Street, St Thomas, shortly before 9pm on Thursday, June 18, where a 21-year-old woman was being taken by ambulance to Morriston Hospital, where she later died.

“Her death is not being treated as suspicious and the circumstances will be investigated on behalf of HM Coroner.”

A funeral service will be held at 10.30am on Monday, July 6, at St John’s Southworth, in Nelson.