'I will always love you, mum'

Family and friends farewell 11-year-old Sophie May, inset. Photo / Jason Dorday

A primary schoolgirl has died from a suspected brain haemorrhage, bewildering her family.

Eleven-year-old Sophie Temple was one of two unrelated under 30-year-olds to die from the same condition within a few days.

Sophie's family raced to her bedside after she died suddenly last Saturday, soon after giving mum Margaret an early Mother's Day card reading: "I will always love you."

Margaret told mourners at Sophie's funeral on Friday, she had touched them all.

"She made so many friends within a blink of an eye. I don't know what I'm going to do. I'm not meant to be burying my baby."

Sophie had 11 siblings in her extended family. Her father Chris told the service, at Colwill Primary in Massey, that he had spent much of last Saturday at the morgue.

"We spent all day with her, talking to you Sophie. Crying and grieving."

Two days earlier, the family of sports-mad Justin Robinson mourned the 29-year-old, who died at Auckland Hospital.

Robinson was raised in Dunedin. He moved to Auckland when he was 17. His parents, Helen and Rennie, live in Australia.

Mourners were told Robinson enjoyed the outdoors - sports, fishing, snowboarding and surfing - and also loved cars and animals.

His fiancee, Haley, said he had given her nine years of fantastic memories. "Our life together was a journey, not a destination. We took time to enjoy the small things. I understand just how important those small things are in life."

She said she was "really unprepared" for a future without him.

"We had so many plans together ... you are my best friend, my life partner. I will remember you, my honey and I will love you forever."

Dr Jon Simcock, medical adviser at the New Zealand Neurological Foundation, said brain haemorrhages in those under 50 were "uncommon".

"Of all strokes, about 15 per cent are from brain haemorrhage, so it's quite a common cause of stroke in the elderly, but in under 30s you've got to, basically, have an abnormality of the arteries."

Simcock said there were several kinds of abnormality. The most common was tangled blood vessels which created an abnormal connection between the brain arteries and the veins.