A former British champion ice skater who collapsed and died from a brain haemorrhage gave birth to a baby girl two days later. 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 25 weeks' pregnant when she collapsed in her bedroom last Wednesday after suffering a headache. She was airlifted to the hospital but was pronounced dead at 8pm.

Doctors said she 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.

He said they had been overjoyed when his wife became pregnant after suffering an earlier miscarriage. "I can remember the first scan," he told the Daily Mail. "We just hugged each other and kept crying when we saw the heartbeat. It was this tiny speck beating."

He recalled his wife's last hours: "The doctors told me there was nothing they could do for Jayne but they needed her to stay strong for 48 hours to help our unborn child."

In 1989, Ms Soliman was 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."

Phillips said her husband "has had the best and the worst day of his life within such a short space of time - 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. "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 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'."

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