Interior designer wanted to start a family and hoped for best year of her life

Andreea Christea, 31, had written of her hope that 2017 would be the best year of her life.

She had planned to start a family with her partner, Andrei Burnaz. But her “dreams were shattered” by Khalid Masood, his car striking her and making her fall 40ft into the Thames. The Romanian was rescued after nine minutes in the water but never regained consciousness and died on April 6.

In a New Year’s Eve note, she wrote: “The year 2017 will be the best of my life … I will have a wonderful man by my side, who will love and cherish me and with this man I will start a wonderful family.” Her family, some of whom followed proceedings from the British embassy in Bucharest, paid tribute to Ms Cristea on what would have been her 33rd birthday.

Described as a “lovely, enchanting and life-loving” woman, she had a thriving interior design business. “All her dreams were shattered when she went on her final trip to England and she suddenly became the victim of the terror attacks,” their statement said. “It is Andreea Cristea, 33, was described as a “lovely, enchanting and life-loving” woman heartbreakingly painful. The pain we feelcannot be expressed in words.”

‘All her dreams were shattered when she went on trip to England’