A MEMORIAL service is to be held tomorrow to mark the first anniversary of the death of Halesowen student Christina Edkins, who was stabbed to death as she travelled to school on a bas.

The 16-year-old died from a single wound to her chest in the random attack by paranoid schizophrenic Phillip Simelane on March 7 last year.

Christina, from Birmingham, died despite attempts by fellow passengers to save her after she was stabbed on the number nine bus as it travelled along Hagley Road.

The indiscriminate killing of the popular teenager, who was preparing to sit her GCSEs at Leasowes High School, sent shockwaves around the country.

Her devastated family are holding the memorial service at St Philips’s Cathedral, Birmingham Cathedral, where two weeks after her death her funeral was held.

A West Midlands Police spokesman, speaking on behalf of her parents, Jason and Kathleen Edkins, said anyone who knew Christina was welcome to attend the service at 3pm.

Simelane, aged 22 at the time, from Walsall, admitted manslaughter at Birmingham Crown Court last October and was detained in a secure psychiatric hospital indefinitely.