Kelly Pegg: Being a mum is the most special job in the world

As soon as March begins I think about Mother’s Day practically every day. It sounds daft but it feels like there is someone tapping away on my shoulder constantly saying, “your mum isn’t here anymore”.

Of course I think about her every day anyway. Often I wake up and she will be my first thought of the day.

I dream about her all the time especially if I’m struggling and feel confused about something.

I only have to look at my daughter and I see her – Ava-Lilly has the same piercing blue eyes and smile.

Loved ones never truly leave us; there is always a reminder of them in our daily lives.

It can be a song you hear which reminds you of them, something someone says or a smell that shows us they will always be with us in some way.

My daughter makes Mother’s Day truly special for me.

It’s like a pain in my heart is almost healed when I look at Ava-Lilly, she is everything. No matter how sad I feel about not having my mum to honour on Sunday, being her mother is the best feeling in the world.

The night she was born was without doubt was the best night of my life. As soon as the surgeons told me I’d had a girl I felt so lucky. “A best friend for life,” I remember thinking, along with “I’ll never let her down”.

My mum was everything to me but rather sadly I didn’t have the close relationship with her that I yearned for.

Her addiction to alcohol meant I never came first, second or even third for that matter.

She was a beautiful woman, so clever and so kind but after a drink or several