A HAMPSHIRE teenager has died in her sleep after losing a two-year battle with anorexia.

Talented student Alice Rae was on course to study at Cambridge University after she finished her A-Levels at Brockenhurst college.

But the pretty 18-year-old died at her Hampshire home after succumbing to the eating disorder.

Her mum Dr Christine Rae described her daughter as "beautiful, clever and incredibly gifted".

She said: "We were very proud of her.

"But she had battled anorexia for two years and had become very, very thin as she was going through a bad patch."

"She was not very well but her death was very sudden," she added.

Dr Rae went on to describe how it was her who found Alice, a brilliant student who had achieved nine A* grades at GCSE level. "It is particularly distressing as I was the one who found her when I went in to wake her - she had died in her sleep.

"I do not know what caused her anorexia but in the last year she really deteriorated. We tried all sorts of treatment but nothing worked."

Alice, who attended the private all girls St Swithun's school in Winchester, had been under the care of an eating disorder clinic in Eastleigh and towards the end was under full NHS care.

Health bosses are now undertaking a full review of the care Alice, who had two brothers William, 23, Tom, 21, and 17-year-old sister Georgina, received after the family said they were not happy with her treatment.

A Hampshire Partnership NHS Trust spokesman said a full review was underway following Alice's death. "The trust will be making contact with Miss Rae's family to involve them in the process and discuss any matters regarding the care and treatment of Alice."

Alice, who had been accepted to study economics at Gonville & Caius College in Cambridge, will be buried on Friday at a service at the All Saints church in Houghton where she lived with her mum and dad Peter, 52, a company director.

The Rev Ron Corne, who will lead the service said: "She was a lovely, beautiful girl and the family are understandably devastated."

Tributes were also paid by friends who have flooded a social networking site with messages of condolence.

Jamie Burrows, 20, said: "She had just got into Cambridge and she'd worked incredibly hard at school. She had everything going for her.

"She was obviously a skinny girl but I didn't know that she was ill."