A FATHER has paid tribute to his 22-year-old daughter who died after taking part in the sport she loved.

Phoebe Stockford, of Gladstone Road, Headington, came off her motorbike during a track day at Wales’s Pembrey Circuit on Saturday. The former Cheney School pupil was airlifted to the University Hospital of Wales after being treated at the scene but died in hospital the following day from her injuries.

Yesterday her father Paul Stockford said tributes have since poured in for his daughter, with family and friends changing their Facebook profile picture to her racing number 88 in her memory.

The 56-year-old said: “We are still in pieces really.

“It’s still not sunk in. It’s really difficult.

“We are really thankful for all the messages from people, from everybody.

“She was just lovely. She always had a smile, always happy, never sad at all. “She would do anything for you. I feel so very proud of her. I always have.”

Phoebe lived with her father and mother Alison, 57, and had two brothers Daniel, 30, and Jack, 27.

Mr Stockford said his daughter’s love of bikes grew after she was given a moped at the age of 16.

She began racing last year after joining the British Motorcycle Club and its group for racers of the MZ motorbike.

Her father said: “It meant everything to her. When she came back from a race, she just could not wait to race again.”

Mr Stockford said his daughter wanted to be a mechanic but struggled to find anyone willing to take her on after leaving school and later decided on a career as a electrician.

He said he was “flabbergasted” she wanted to follow in her family’s footsteps, pursuing the same career as him and his sons.

Mr Stockford, who runs Current Electrical Oxford, added: “She wanted to do it on her own and that’s exactly what she did.”

Miss Stockford joined Kidlington-based Darke and Taylor in 2010, becoming the electrical engineering company’s first female apprentice at the age of 17.

After completing her apprenticeship, she was invited to become an apprentice ambassador for training body JTL, helping to promote women into the industry.

She was a finalist at the JTL Regional Apprentice Awards last summer and a few months later was highly commended in the Electrical Apprentice of the Year category at the national Electrical Industry Awards.

She was also part of a Darke and Taylor team which took on the Three Peaks Challenge in June, raising more than £10,000 for charity.

Mr Stockford said: “She lived life at 100mph. She was like a dynamo. It was all or nothing.”

Family and friends will travel to Pembrey tomorrow where motorcyclists donning armbands will take part in a lap of honour.

Mr Stockford, who said the whole family loves riding motorcycles, added: “We all knew it [motorcycling] was dangerous and that’s a given. You just hope the worst will never happen and it just did.”