A YOUNG British doctor murdered by the Taliban was due to fly home to get married on Friday.

Dr Karen Woo was shot dead when her international aid convoy came under fire from gunmen in a remote region of Afghanistan.

Her killers had circled the three vehicles before lining the 10 team members beside the desolate mountain road and shooting them dead, one by one.

Last night her family were ­utterly heartbroken. They had been told the dreadful news while making last minute preparations for her wedding in London to boyfriend Paddy Smith, a former soldier.

Family friend Elaine Makowska, 58, revealed: “It’s heartbreaking, utterly tragic. The family had booked a registry office… she was due to return for the wedding and then fly back to Afghanistan to continue her charity work.”

Her fiancÉ Paddy, who now works as a security contractor in Kabul, was too distraught to talk. Friends say he will fly home with her body. Karen, 36, was part of an international aid mission providing health care to desperate Afghans.

She was passionate about helping the world’s most disadvantaged people and had travelled regularly to Afghanistan since 2008. She had been in the country for eight months before the fatal trip north.

Her devastated mother Lynn, 66, a retired psychiatric nurse, and father Tehaun, 67, a retired television service engineer, were being comforted yesterday by her ­brothers David and Andrew at the family home in ­Stevenage, Herts. Karen had worked as a surgeon for five years in London before taking the role as associate medical director of private health care provider Bupa in October 2008.