A woman has died after being struck on the head by a golf ball while playing a practice match.

Janet Llewellyn, 66, from Balloch, Dunbartonshire, was injured at Strathendrick Golf Club in Drymen, Stirlingshire, on October 1.

After receiving treatment from emergency services at the scene, she was airlifted to the Southern General Hospital in Glasgow where she died the next day.

Mrs Llewellyn, who has two grandchildren, was a voluntary worker at the Vale of Leven Hospital in Alexandria, Dunbartonshire. She had spent almost 20 years serving staff and visitors at a shop in the hospital run by the Women's Royal Voluntary Service.

Cathy McGroarty, 79, who lives near Balloch and worked at the shop with Mrs Llewellyn, said: "I can't believe she passed away in such circumstances. It is a total freak accident.

"She was very good at work. She was always so active and full of life and a very nice person to know.”

The golf course was closed for two days after the accident as a mark of respect towards the grandmother.

Mrs Llewellyn and her husband John moved to Plymouth after they were married but returned to Scotland in 1975, settling in Balloch. Her husband died at the Vale of Leven Hospital, where she worked, in 1991.

The couple's son, Richard, 47, who travelled from Northampton to make funeral arrangements, was too upset to comment, but confirmed that is mother had been struck on the head by a golf ball, causing injury.

Ms McGroarty said that Mrs Llewellyn was a "bubbly woman", who "lit up the room".

She said: "I have some great memories of being out with her on Christmas nights out. She was really good fun.

"She loved to play golf and she was always telling people how she was getting on at the course. Any spare time she had when she wasn't volunteering to help others was spent playing golf.

"She did dedicate her life to others and will be very much missed by everyone here."

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