Two hundred people paid their last respects to a four-year-old girl who helped raise £27,000 for the Oxford Children's Hospital Campaign.

Amid the sadness of Jodie Mace's funeral at Witney Methodist Church yesterday were little rays of light, reflecting the brightness of a child who inspired her sister Zo to record a CD for the £15m appeal. Her white coffin was decorated with colourfully painted hand prints and smiley faces, while many of the mourners, including children and the elderly, proudly wore pink -- her favourite colour.

Her family, of Witney Road, Freeland, led the thanksgiving service, which came eight days after Jodie died at the John Radcliffe Hospital, Headington, Oxford, following heart surgery.

Although she had been born with Down's syndrome and two holes in her heart, her mother Linda told the congregation that her daughter had been a lot sicker than anyone had realised.

Charting her life in a reading called A Letter to Jodie, Mrs Mace said: "How wrong we all were to have all those bad feelings, you truly were a gift from God. The day you arrived my life had just begun.

"The last four and a half years have been the best of my life so far. We never knew how desperately fragile you were. We are so proud of what you showed the world you could do.

"The pain is so unbearable and the hole you have left in our lives is just too big and will never be filled. We will never forget you, our special angel from above."

Jodie was brought into the church to a recording of Little Ray of Light, a song specially written for and dedicated to her, sung by Zo.

It will be one of the tracks on her second CD, Songs for My Sister, which is being recorded at Easter to raise money for the Down's Syndrome Association.

Mrs Mace said it was the sisters' closeness which led Cokethorpe School pupil Zo to record her first album Little Ray of Light to thank the doctors and nurses who had cared for Jodie since her birth.

To continue the musical theme, mourners sang Give Me Oil in My Lamp Keep Me Burning, Morning has Broken and Make Me a Channel of Your Peace, and Jodie's coffin left the High Street church to another recording of her sister singing Somewhere Over the Rainbow.

Jodie was buried at Tower Hill Cemetery, Witney. An invitation-only memorial service at Cokethorpe School chapel, near Witney, will be held for her on Saturday.