Family reveal daughter's 'painful' last memory of mother stabbed at Notting Hill Carnival

The family of a mother who was fatally stabbed as she attended Notting Hill Carnival with her three-year-old daughter has said "the feeling of loss is overwhelming, but so is the feeling of rage".

Cher Maximen, 32, was stabbed at the west London carnival's "Family Day" on 25 August last year. Shakeil Thibou, 20, has been found guilty of her murder following a trial at the Old Bailey.

"I've lost my parents. I've lost my brother.

Nothing has felt like this ever," Ms Maximen's cousin Lawrence Hoo told Sky News. "It is the cruellest thing, it truly is." Ms Maximen died at a carnival she had been to so many times - she barely missed one.

On the day, Ms Maximen and her three-year-old daughter arrived at Europe's biggest street party with a group of friends and their children. They'd been sitting and chatting when she was knocked over by some men who had started fighting.

News of her stabbing came almost immediately. Mr Hoo remembers receiving the call.

"When I first heard that she'd been stabbed, I know it sounds silly, but I thought Cher will be alright. Cher's strong, she'll get through this." Ms Maximen was taken to hospital and underwent a number of emergency procedures before being put on life support.

Mr Hoo immediately headed to London to be at her bedside. "I can remember being in the hospital being sat there with her, with other family members and that's the last time I saw her.

It still doesn't feel real. There's still disbelief," he said.

"It's the most senseless act to someone who had so much life and so much to give." Ms Maximen died from her injuries six days after the incident. Relatives say she was a vivacious young woman who grew up in Bristol and then London, finding her feet working with people in music and entertainment.

'She lit up the room' Ms Maximen was described as a "people person.