Dr Kate Furneaux was killed while cycling along Stanningley Road when she was hit by a truck just two weeks after receiving her PhD.

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Hundreds of people attended the funeral of Kate Furneaux earlier this year and were invited to donate to the People and Planet group which she had supported as a student at Leeds University

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The charity campaigns on world poverty, human rights and the environment.

Now her parents, Phil and Beth Furneaux, said that more than £3,000 was donated with another £840 due to come in gift aid.

Mrs Furneaux said: "This money has been donated as tribute to Kate and her commitment to campaigning against inequality and in favour of sustainability and positive action.

"We are very pleased at the total and touched by everyone's generosity."

Dr Furneaux was involved in the collision with a wagon on July 28 and later died at Leeds General Infirmary.

Just a fortnight earlier she had graduated with a PhD in Atmospheric Chemistry from Leeds University.

People and Planet links up student activists across the UK and Dr Furneaux had supported them in their work in schools and universities on issues such as climate change and poverty.

Lynn Dew, who worked with her in the Sheffield People and Planet group, said: "Kate was a wonderful person, she believed in the goodness of people and the possibility for change in the world. She was an inspiration to all who knew her.

"Knowing that bright minds like Kate's are working for the better on this crazy planet, I also share her hope and enthusiasm for the future. She will be missed."

A smaller donation was also made to the Roadpeace charity which works with the bereaved and injured road crash victims.

Born in 1982, Dr Furneaux went to local schools in Cumbria where she grew up. After a gap year in Tanzania, she went on to obtain a first class MSc honours degree in chemistry at Sheffield University.

She was then awarded her PhD degree from Leeds University and was about to start a promising career at a top science research institute in Germany in September.