Former figure skater suffered a fatal brain haemorrhage.

A FORMER ice skating champion gave birth two days after she collapsed and died from a brain haemorrhage, a hospital confirmed yesterday.

Jayne Soliman had been declared brain-dead but doctors kept her heart beating long enough for her daughter Aya Jayne to be delivered by Caesarean section.

Friends and former colleagues expressed their "immense sadness" and "great regret" over her death yesterday but said her daughter, who was her only child, was "doing well".

The 41-year-old professional skater, who had competed in international galas, was 25 weeks pregnant when she collapsed in her bedroom after complaining of a headache.

Mrs Soliman was airlifted from her home in Bracknell, Berkshire, to Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford, but died at 8pm on January 7, soon after arrival.

Doctors said the skater had suffered from a haemorrhage caused by an aggressive tumour that had struck a major blood vessel.

In the hope her baby could be saved doctors put Mrs Soliman on a life-support machine and gave her large doses of steroids to help the child's lungs develop. Two days later, she gave birth to a baby girl weighing just under 2lb 1oz.

Mrs Soliman's husband, Mahmoud Soliman, has been too upset to speak publicly about his wife's death.

However, David Phillips, a fellow skater and friend who was with Mrs Soliman when she died, said: "To Jayne, becoming a mother was the best thing in the world that could have happened to her.

"She was so happy. She had always wanted to be a mum more than anything else. She lived to have a baby girl. That was the one thing she wanted in her life."

Mr Phillips went on: "The hospital laid her baby on her shoulder when she was born so she could have a moment with her. This would have been the best day of her life."

Aya Jayne has been transferred to the intensive care unit at the Royal Berkshire Hospital and is being closely monitored by doctors.

Mr Phillips said: "She's absolutely tiny. Her eyes are the size of lemon pips and her hands are about as big as my wedding ring. But she's doing brilliantly."

Speaking about Mr Soliman, Mr Phillips said: "He has had the best and the worst day of his life within such a short space of time.

"It's just something you can't conceive ... turning off your wife's life support machine and then going to see your new-born daughter."

More than 300 mourners attended Mrs Soliman's funeral last weekend at the Jamia Masjid mosque in Reading.

She was both British champion and number seven in the world for professional free skating in 1989.

The coach also taught in Abu Dhabi, where she met her husband. The newly married couple returned to the UK two years ago and set up home in Bracknell, where she began working at the Bracknell Ice Skating Club.

She was also a former member of the Ice Dance and Figure Skating Club in Southampton, Hampshire.

Edna Boden, the secretary of Southampton Ice Dance and Figure Skating Club, where Mrs Soliman had been member earlier in her career, was among former colleagues who paid tribute to her yesterday.

She said: "It is such terrible news and a sad loss to the skating community.

"She was a long-standing and very popular member of the club. She took part in all the shows.

"We are absolutely devastated. But it's such good news about her daughter."

Anita Curtis, an ice-skating coach and former member of the Southampton club, who was a friend of Mrs Soliman, said: "She was lots of fun and full of energy. She was full of life and was desperately looking forward to having the baby."

Writing on the National Ice Skating Association's website, Lesley Brenikov, chair of Bracknell Ice Skating Club, described Mrs Soliman as a "longstanding, popular and well-known coach".