CLAIRE Hughes held a huge charity picnic as part of a year of challenges in memory of her sister.

Zoe Hitchman died after falling ill with meningitis aged 12 in 1993.

So in what would have been her 40th year, Claire set herself a list of 40 challenges.

And one was the celebratory birthday picnic that saw friends and family gather in Boundary Park, Didcot, all wearing pink to enjoy music, games and Zoe's favourite films Grease and Dirty Dancing.

Claire was 14 when her sister died.

She said: “It was all very sudden and it was a very difficult time for family, the community of Didcot and the school and her friends.”

October 23, 2020 would have been Zoe’s 40th birthday and to mark it, Claire created the challenge list.

She said it was an accumulation of things Zoe would have loved, including sleeping in a haunted house, dying her hair pink for a week, singing with Jason Donovan, and using a zip wire.

So far, Zoe's friends and family have managed to complete 17 out of the 40 items on the bucket list.

That includes having driving lessons, sending a letter to space, learning Italian, naming a star after Zoe and visiting the Northern Lights.

The bucket list has taken Zoe's friends and family on to national TV with comedian Hugh Dennis getting involved.

A friend of Claire's took part in the Channel 4 TV show The Great British Dig, and on one episode the Outnumbered comedian wore a badge that said '#pinkforZoe'.

Claire said: "All the things we have done are the things people like to do.

"But some of the things are a bit odd, such as eating an oyster. That is a really random one because we really hate selfish.

"It was one of the things we both said when we were little, because my dad was a fisherman, that we would never ever do.

"I still have not done it yet because I need to work myself up for that one."

The pink picnic in the park was supposed to be the pinnacle of the items on the bucket list but due to the pandemic the belated birthday party has only just been held.

The event raised £2,000 for Meningitis Research Foundation and Claire will continue to fundraise and complete the bucket list items.