A former British champion ice skater who collapsed and died from a brain haemorrhage gave birth to a baby girl two days later, it emerged yesterday.

Jayne Soliman, 41, was declared brain-dead at Oxford's John Radcliffe hospital but doctors managed to keep her heart beating long enough to deliver Aya Jayne by caesarean section.

Ms Soliman was only 25 weeks' pregnant when she collapsed in her bedroom last Wednesday, having lain down complaining of a headache. She was airlifted to the hospital but was pronounced dead at 8pm.

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

She was given large doses of steroids to help the child's lungs develop and within 48 hours gave birth to the baby, who weighed 0.95kg (2lb 1.5oz). Her husband, Mahmoud, was with her when the child was born.

In 1989, Ms Soliman was both British champion and No 7 in the world for professional free skating. She also spent some time in Dubai, where she taught figure skating and met Mahmoud. On returning to England two years ago, the newly married couple set up home in Bracknell and Jayne began working for the Bracknell Ice Skating Club.

David Phillips, a friend and fellow skater, said Ms Soliman had shown no signs that anything was wrong earlier in the day and did not know she had a tumour. "Jayne and I had both been at the ice rink in Bracknell that day and she was absolutely fine; nothing seemed wrong. She was as happy as she could be because she was pregnant – it was her dream.

"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.

"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."

Phillips said her husband "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 newborn daughter."

Phillips' wife, Lucine, 38, who was present at the birth of Aya, described the mixture of joy and sadness at seeing the birth. "Aya was born kicking and wriggling ... I was elated with the new life that had just come into the world but in the same instant it was so sad to think that Jayne was never going to see her beautiful baby.

"A midwife picked tiny Aya up and put her little face up to Jayne's – if Jayne had been awake she would have had eye contact with her daughter. It was just like welcoming any new baby into the world and everyone in the room was so elated, it was a celebratory feeling. But we also had to say goodbye to Jayne; Mahmoud said goodbye on his own because he wanted to be the last person to see her.

"He sat with her for a while and then he was told he could go and see his daughter. Mahmoud couldn't hold Aya straight away because she was taken into intensive care – he kept asking if she was okay and whether she had 10 fingers and toes.

"He was given a photo of her and I could just tell from his face that he was overcome with emotion, it was just welling up inside him. He took one look at his daughter and was overjoyed to see her. He said, 'That's my Jayney'. He was allowed to touch Aya and seeing her tiny fingers close in on his was just indescribable."

More than 300 mourners attended Ms Soliman's funeral last weekend, which was held at the Jamia Masjid mosque in Reading.