Mrs Sayer said Gemma was loved by everyone

Jayne Sayers's 12-year-old daughter Gemma suffered a haemorrhage after she fell off her bike two years ago while visiting friends.

Mrs Sayer, 40, and her husband Roger, 43, from Bromsgrove, Worcestershire were called to the hospital but Gemma died by the time they arrived.

Unable to express her grief, Mrs Sayer began to write her feelings in a diary.

"She was our only child, it was a devastating shock," she said.

"During the first few weeks and months I was very numb and it was very difficult to express my emotions.

"About a week after the funeral I started to keep a diary of my hopes and fears, it was very cathartic."

Gemma died in Handsworth Wood during a weekend away from home.

On the first anniversary of her death in February 2003, Mrs Sayer, a lecturer in mental health at the University of Central England, decided to try and get the diary published as a tribute to Gemma.

It is a factual warts and all account, it is not a happy ending but it has made us strong Jayne Sayer

"I approached several publishers but as it was about grief I found it difficult until I found Trafford who publish on demand," she said.

"It is about the grief and loss of the first 12 months, and I hope it will inspire other people and provide a way forward as it has for me."

The book, Losing Gemma, a Mother's Story, went on sale last week and Mrs Sayer said the publishers had already had a number of requests.

All proceeds are going to Birmingham Children's Hospital, where Gemma died, and St Georges School, in Edgbaston, where she was a pupil.

Mrs Sayer said although 9,000 children die each year she found it very difficult to find any information for parents who lose a child, particularly an only child.

"Everybody grieves differently, and the diary was how to do that for me and for other people in similar situations," she said.

"It is a factual warts and all account, it is not a happy ending but it has made us strong from it and we have picked up our lives."