IT was a night to remember a very special young lady and raise thousands for a Bicester school close to her heart.

In June this year popular teenager Olivia Jefferies, 18, known as Livi, died in a car crash in Adderbury.

The Oxford High School student died just days before she was due to take her A-Levels.

Now friends and family have raised more than £5,000 in her memory though donations and a ball.

Cash will be donated to an appeal to build a state-of-the-art communications classroom at Bardwell Special School in Hendon Place, Bicester.

Miss Jefferies did work experience at the school and was also a volunteer there.

Friend Lesley Gascoigne, who with Toeni Young organised the ball at the officers’ mess at Bicester Garrison in Ambrosden last month, said: “We had 130 guests including Livi’s family and friends. We were amazed at the amount we raised. It started off as ‘let’s have a little party’, and just grew and grew.

“The money will be added to the amount already raised by Livi’s family and friends, and her parents will present the school with the grand total shortly.”

Mrs Gascoigne, 52, of Ambrosden, works for Livi’s father Steve at his Bicester company, Esca, in Murdock Road. She said: “Livi used to babysit for my daughter Jessica, who has autism, and she helped her in lots of ways.

“Livi was the only person she would go into town with. Livi was so full of life and so outgoing and liked.

“She was very clever and was hugely popular.”

Recently Miss Jefferies’ parents helped spruce up the sensory garden at Bardwell School.

Miss Jefferies, who was planning to read French and Arabic at university, died after her Peugeot 107 and a Ford Focus collided. Her car left the road and crashed into a ditch. At the time her family, from Twyford, near Banbury, paid tribute to their “amazing” daughter and sister.