A Trowbridge woman was given a funeral ‘fit for a celebrity’ after losing her battle with Huntington’s Disease.

Delia Pearce, 43, suffered for years from the debilitating hereditary disease and died on May 10 at a care home in Cornwall Miss Pearce planned her own funeral down to every detail after her mother, Kathleen, and sister, Bridget, both died from the condition.

The funeral procession started at The Malt House pub, in Roundstone Street, Trowbridge, where friends gathered to watch the send-off.

The coffin was draped in a leopard print throw and its foot was labelled with a mock-up license plate that read ‘Big Boss’.

It was borne away in a glass carriage, drawn by two black Dutch warmblood horses from Rushmere Carriages, of Coleford in the Forest of Dean.

People stopped to watch the cortege move onto the A361 Hilperton Road, travelling through Hilperton to the West Wiltshire Crematorium.

Mourners were instructed by Miss Pearce to wear red and black and a dozen red balloons were released in the crematorium’s grounds.

The service was attended by nearly 50 people, who entered to the 1971 country song Take Me Home Country Roads.

They sang along to Shirley Bassey’s I Am What I Am, led by Miss Pearce’s close friends Sally Boyle and Cher Riley.

The service was led by Margaret Stanley, from the crematorium, who said: “This extraordinarily brave woman realised she was facing a death sentence and had turned to her friend Sally in her hour of need.”

Mrs Boyle, of Trowbridge, said in her eulogy: “Delia became a big part of my life and now she leaves a really big void. She was known all around the town and of course she enjoyed her drink but that was what brought her so many great friends.

“She was bright, loving, fun, eccentric and above all brave. She deserves a funeral fit for a celebrity.”

Miss Pearce spent her final days in Milliton Court care home, in Launceston, Cornwall, where her sister had also been looked after.

Carers at the home regularly brought Miss Pearce back to Trowbridge to visit her old friends.

Julia Rothon, from the care home, said: “She was popular and outgoing and she was a great ambassador for people who suffer from the same disease.”

Friends plan to install a bench near the Malt House pub with a plaque in her memory, and will continue their fundraising efforts to help research into the disease and support for sufferers.