We'll always have the memory of Tahlia Banks sitting at the back of our Journalism classes with her two best mates, Hannah and Darryl. On Twitter, Tahlia calls herself Tink, after Tinkerbell; together, they were The Three Musketeers, each of them a force of nature. Now they are just two.​

Tahlia had cystic fibrosis, a disease that takes people at a time when all their friends are just starting out on life's adventure.

Her family have asked for donations for the Cystic Fibrosis Trust, and so we now ask our colleagues and students to support this charity through a justgiving.com page.

We always knew there was a chance we would lose our Tink. Early in the course we asked the students to share a big moment in their lives. Hannah spoke about being a guest at an after-show party with McFly, but Tahlia said that at last, she'd been put on the list for an urgent lung transplant. Everyone loved Hannah's story, but agreed Tahlia's was the big news.

On 18 December, @Tink said how glad she was to be coming home for Christmas, from one of her many spells in hospital. The next day, she was due to go in to the BBC to talk about her blog, about living with cystic fibrosis. Instead, she was rushed to hospital in London for that double lung transplant. Time had almost run out. She posted a selfie  and tweeted: "This is going to be the longest day of my life."

For weeks afterwards, there was no news, and then only good news. All seemed to be going well. Tink spoke of celebrating a delayed family Christmas. We were looking forward to seeing her back at university.

On 3 March she was in Harefield Hospital for tests. The next day, she told her Twitter followers, "Got rejection again, great!" And on 17 April, the worst news came.

There are many, very moving messages on Tahlia's Facebook page, paying tribute to her bubbly character, her big-heartedness, and her fighting spirit (some of those tweets are pretty forthright). At Coventry, we will remember her determination to continue her studies (and pass that wretched law test - which she did).