Pizzas galore!

Ms O’Hanlon had taught at King’s Cliffe Endowed School and Woodnewton Junior School in Northamptonshire and was due to begin a new term as acting deputy headteacher at Wollaston Primary School, in Wellingborough.

Friends in Kettering reacted with shock today at news of her death. Ms O’Hanlon was excited about starting her new job, but had not told her neighbours in Blenheim Way about her second trip to Thailand.

One neighbour, who asked not to be named, said: "She was there for the tsunami, she saw all that, but I did not know she had gone back there.

"She went away for a while and then I saw her a couple of months ago and she was telling me what she’d been doing in Thailand.

"She was a lovely girl, really bubbly. She was quite petite, fair-haired and pretty.

"She said she had got this new job and she was quite excited but she didn’t tell me she was going away."

A spokesman from Northamptonshire County Council said: "We are all deeply shocked and saddened to hear of Debra’s death.

"Debra was highly regarded for the work she did as a teacher in Northamptonshire, having worked at Woodnewton Junior School, and at King’s Cliffe Endowed School.

"We were all looking forward to Debra taking up her new post as deputy head teacher at Wollaston County Primary School in September.

"At this terrible time all our thoughts are with her family and friends."

Rachel Dempster, head teacher at King’s Cliffe Endowed school and former deputy head teacher at Woodnewton Junior School, said: "Debra was a very, very talented, powerful and gifted teacher.

"She had everything to live for. She had worked for me since Easter at King’s Cliffe, and was a very committed, dedicated teacher who will be very sadly missed."

Doctors are carrying out a post-mortem today at Phuket’s Wachira Hospital.

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