Family and friends are being urged to shun black and wear “cheerful” clothes to a thanksgiving service to celebrate the lives of tragic Oswestry mother and daughter Sue and Frankie McFall.

The service will be held at St Oswald’s Parish Church on Tuesday and is expected to attract hundreds of people. Mrs McFall and her daughter Frankie, 18, are believed to have been murdered by Hugh McFall, husband to Sue and father to Frankie.

He is thought to have killed the two women at their home in Hampton Road in the early hours of February 5, before driving to his warehouse in St Martins where he was found hanged.

Today St Oswald’s vicar, the Reverend Simon Thorburn, said the dress code for the service reflected the personalities of the two women and was a fitting tribute.

He said there would also be popular hymns including Morning Has Broken and All Things Bright and Beautiful, readings and a family tribute.

“Both are very well known hymns but they are also about beauty and also about saying goodbye,” he said.

He said there would also be a reading at the service and a tribute on behalf of the family.

Mr Thorburn said that the service would be a chance for family and friends of Mrs McFall and her daughter to say thank you for their lives.

“They are both lives that have been cut short so very young, but particularly in the case of Frankie,” he said.

“By wearing cheerful clothes those at the service will mirror the lives and the characters of those who they are giving thanks for.”

Mr Thorburn said relatives often thought of what their loved ones would have wanted at funerals.

“I hope this service will help people move forward,” he said.

Those wanting to make donations in memory of Mrs McFall and her daughter can do so, through the funeral directors, to the Hope House Children’s Hospice.

Oswestry funeral directors, David Davies, confirmed a service of thanksgiving would be held at the Parish Church of St Oswald at 1.30pm on Tuesday.