AN URMSTON mum has slammed a Home Office decision to cut thousands of pounds of funding needed to produce a road safety charity distributed bereavement pack.

Helen Evans whose 21-year-old daughter Katie was killed by a drink driver two years ago is one of many grieving relatives to have received Brake's Advice for bereaved families and friends following a death on the road' pack since its launch in 2000.

But now the Home Office has announced it is to cut the £44,000 annual funding needed to fund its production in October 2007.

Helen, said: "It's a great shame they're cutting the funding because the pack is very helpful and informative for people like myself who have had a sudden bereavement and who don't know what to do. It's always something to refer back to.

"Because Brake is a charity run organisation it needs all the help it can get.

"The people who cut the funding probably don't even know what it is."

The packs provide essential, plain English information on both emotions and practical procedures that can follow a sudden and violent death on the road.

Brake has pledged the pack, which is circulated via police forces, will not be discontinued and they are urgently seeking alternative sources of finance.

An online petition to save our brakecare bereavement pack' has also been launched at www.brake.org.uk. Click on Forgotten Victims.'