A CHARITY netball tournament has raised more than �2,000 as schoolfriends gathered on Saturday to remember a teenager who lost her battle with cancer.

More than 100 people turned out at Fearnhill School in Letchworth GC to honour the memory of Natalie Brooks, who died aged 16 of non-Hodgkin’s Lyphoma in October 2003.

Family members of the former Fearnhill pupil were in attendance as 11 teams competed for the bragging rights in a fundraiser for Cancer Research UK.

The tournament followed a similar event 17 months ago which raised around �1700 but that total has been topped this time around.

“It went really well - the weather held out so that was good,” said organiser Lauren Cunningham, who met Natalie aged five at Icknield Nursery School and was in the same form as her at Fearnhill.

“We had to go buy more food at one point because we were running out!”

She added: “It’s the second time we’ve done a netball tournament and it did take a lot of planning so we may do it every 18 months, but it’s something we want to carry on in the future. Everybody was really supportive and seemed to enjoy themselves.”

At the last event a team featuring Natalie’s brother Marvin won the tournament but this year’s victors were The Pink Lady Men, made up of sixth formers at the Icknield Way school.