Poet Lawrence Hoo: A tribute for my 'loving, caring, funny, energetic' cousin Cher Maximen

Tributes have been paid to a "loving, caring, funny" and "energetic" woman who died after being stabbed at Notting Hill Carnival.

Cher Maximen was with her three-year-old daughter at the carnival's family day on Sunday 25 August when a fight broke out. She tried to intervene, and was stabbed.

The 32-year-old suffered a cardiac arrest and was taken to hospital. Despite undergoing two major operations, she died six days later.

Shakiel Thibou, 20, has been charged with murder following Cher's death. His two brothers, Sheldon, 24, and Shaeim, 21, face lesser charges in connection with her death.

Cher lived in London at the time of her death but was born in Bristol and grew up in the city.

Bristol poet Lawrence Hoo was Cher's cousin.

He has written a poem in tribute to her ahead of a remembrance night at the Malcolm X Centre in St Pauls on Friday 27 September.

Our Cher

Life makes no sense

Death makes less

As we gather here today to honour the life of Cher Maximen

One who represented us all at our best

No words can truly express the sense of loss, pain and emptiness we all feel

If only this was a nightmare, we could awaken from and none of this was real

We would like to believe, we all knew how lively, spirited shall we say, Cher could be

As one who lived her life, to the full, unshackled and free

A loving, caring, funny, energetic soul

Who has left all hearts she touched, with an irreplaceable hole

Cher, you have now become a star that illuminates our night

An angel for Angel Wray

Her omnipresent guiding light