SO MUCH PROMISE, NOW SO MUCH PAIN

Reeva Steenkamp cherished big dreams before her life was cut short brutally on Valentine's Day

- ROXANNE MOONEYS

IT'S 19 AUGUST 1983 and a couple have just welcomed a daughter into the world - a baby they dared to dream they'd have.

Barry and June Steenkamp already have a child each from their previous marriages - a daughter, Simone, for June and a son, Adam, for Barry.

They thought they might have left it a bit late for another baby but here she is, a healthy little girl they've already decided to call Rebecca.

But after Barry sees his daughter, he has another suggestion for a name: Reeva. It means "to bind together" in biblical Hebrew and it was perfect - shed be the seal on her parents' commitment and would go into the world with a strong and unusual name.

The baby is christened Reeva Rebecca and she grows into a model child, exceeding in everything she puts her mind to. At St Dominic's Priory School in what was then Port Elizabeth (now Gqeberha), she's a hardworking learner who excels at extra-murals - especially horse riding, her first love.

"People assume I'm one of those princess types but the only Barbie I had growing up was the one with a horse, Reeva would tell FHM magazine in 2012.

Yet in her teenage years she becomes interested in modelling too, and with her dazzling smile and air of charming innocence, she makes an immediate impact.

"She was 15 and a very young 15," Barbara Robertson, the editor of a local newspaper that hosted a modelling contest where Reeva made her debut, told The Guardian years later.

"She was innocent, down to earth - one of those girls who had the It factor. She was a little bit Kate Moss in her early career."

But Reeva also wants to make sure she has a career she can benefit from for life. After school she enrols for a law degree at Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University and graduates in 2005.