Rebecca Sawbridge lost about 20 friends on the day the Herald of Free Enterprise went down.

She has since attended almost every memorial service on the disaster anniversary and was back yesterday for this year's.

Rebecca, "Beccy" Sawbridge, now 65, was on of the staff on Townsend Thoresen, which owned the Herald of Free Enterprise.

Cllr Sawbridge, now a member of Dover Town Council, was one of the 141 members of the congregation at the 35th anniversary service at St Mary's Church, Dover.

All the names of the 193 who perished, including 38 crew, were read out during the event.

She afterwards told Kent Online: "Straight away I recognise the names of the crew when they are read out.

"I lost 20-odd good friends that day, some I went to school with."

Cllr Sawbridge, as a stewardess, had become on of the Herald's crew in March 1983 but transferred to the sister ship Free Enterprise VIII a few months before the disaster.

She had just come off shift on the early hours of March 6, 1987 and first heard the news of the capsize in a TV newsflash that evening.

She said: "I had only that morning met one of the crew who died." This was Linda Burt, 38, a stewardess from Dover.

Another in the congregation was a man who had come all the way from Manchester but was born on the day of the disaster.

Ben Gareth said: "I was born in Coventry and it was only years later, as I got older, that I learned about what happened.

"I come to these services in Dover most years as a mark of respect."

The Revd Carole Peters-King, on behalf of service organisers the Sailors, Society, read the Act of Remembrance in the church.

She told the congregation: "We recall the many acts of individual heroism of both crew and passengers and we give thanks to God for those who gave their lives that others might live.

"We remember those we loved, and still love, those known to us as friends and those unknown to us.

Straight afterwards there was a two minute's silence.

There was also an address from the Bishop of Dover, the Rt Revd Rose Hudson-Wilkin.

She warned that sadly tragedy and disaster was a recurrence in life.

She explained: "There will be more thunder and tempest in life because that is the way life is. It is how we deal with it."

The Bishop also stressed of the importance of remembering the good times we shared with our loved ones now gone, even amid our deepest grief.

Reading the Pilot Psalm was Kim Spooner who was eight when she lost her aunt and uncle, Neil Spooner and Mary Smith, when the ferry capsized near Zeebrugge.

Those attending also included Dover MP Natalie Elphicke, town mayor Gordon Cowan and Trevor Bartlett, leader of Dover District Council.

Mrs Elphicke said: "The Herald of Free Enterprise disaster rocked our entire community across East Kent. I will never forget the shock I felt when I saw the first reports come in.

“It is right that we come together to remember. I was very moved by speaking to the families of those lost, as well as those who helped with rescue and support work for the families. The Bishop of Dover gave a thoughtful and moving address,”

The event finished at the end of Dover Marina Pier with prayers and the casting of wreaths and flowers into the sea.

Dover has a Herald Wood, created in 1987 with 193 trees, which is located off the A2 near the Whitfield roundabout.