A TEENAGE girl who witnessed the horror of her father collapsing and dying has paid tribute to the friends that are helping her recover.

Georgia Couling, 14, was in the car with her father Nick last September when he suffered a massive brain haemorrhage and collapsed at the wheel.

Now, six months after the traumatic incident, she and her mother Jackie Baker are about to set off on a holiday to Florida courtesy of a family friend.

And she will be jetting off looking her very best, thanks to a pre-holiday makeover from her friends at the Lounge hair and beauty salon in Wimborne Road, Moordown.

Georgia, who attends Talbot Heath School, said she was still struggling to cope with the devastating loss of her father, a local property developer who was just 52 when he died.

She said: “I miss him every single day and dream of him every night. He was a beautiful, kind and generous man.”

She and her father were at the Stony Lane roundabout in Christchurch when he was suddenly taken ill.

Nick was taken to the high dependency unit at the Royal Bournemouth Hospital but his life support machine was switched off the following day.

He was an organ donor and his organs were used to help six other critically ill people.

Nick’s death also devastated his first wife Lindy, their grown-up children Nicholas and Samantha and his youngest daughter Billie.

Georgia said: “I want to say thank you to Martin and everyone at the Lounge, to Julie and Marky for making America possible and my brave uncle Kevin Baker.

“And of course RBH’s high dependency unit, Mosaic who offer counselling to bereaved young people, Pauline Metcalfe, James Roberts, my best friends and my classmates.

“But mostly I want to thank my mum for her incredible strength.”

Martin Duell, owner of the Lounge, organised a head-to-toe pampering session for Georgia and has also been asking customers to donate their old American currency.