HUNDREDS gathered in foggy city streets to pay tribute to Janice Collins who was described as being "almost all heart".
As the horse-drawn carriage with her coffin inside arrived, many of her family and friends, including members of her campaign group Mothers against Guns, began to cry.
The 56-year-old's life, which in later years was devoted to campaigning against violent crime, was celebrated in a ceremony which began with the Labi Siffre song Something Inside So Strong.
Rev Richard Clark, who met Miss Collins on the St Ann's Neighbourhood Regeneration Board, led the service.
Having also led the funeral of Miss Collins' son Brendon Lawrence, who was shot in Watkin Street in 2002, he said the way Miss Collins had dealt with that "massive tragedy" would be her lasting legacy.
"Janice did not choose revenge. Instead she put herself on a path that has undoubtedly led not just to St Ann's being a safer place, not just to Nottingham being a safer place but to the country as a whole being a safer place because she has campaigned with a deep and heartfelt commitment for the reduction of the availability of weapons of death across this land.
"That is her lasting legacy not just to the family she loved, not just to the city she loved but to all of us wherever we are."
Miss Collins, who was originally from Sutton-in-Ashfield but lived in St Ann's, died last Tuesday from cancer.
After her son Brendon was killed, she waited eight years for justice before seeing his killer jailed earlier this year.
She also set up the campaign group Mothers Against Guns and worked tirelessly to reduce violent crime in Nottingham.
The funeral was at St Andrew's Church, Mansfield Road, where Miss Collins had organised Christmas services for the relatives of victims of violent crime.
Referring to the Boxing Day shooting in Westville Gardens, St Ann's, Mr Clark said Miss Collins would have had only one wish for 2011.
"Friends, we do not want to go down that road again," he said. "I do not want to take any more funerals like Brendon's. Let's put a stop to it now, let's keep it stopped."
As Somewhere Over The Rainbow started to play the mourners were asked to pay their own tributes.
Also at the service was Notts Chief Constable Julia Hodson and MP Vernon Coaker.
Mr Coaker said: "Her legacy will live on and the fight she's led against violent crime in particular is something that has made a difference not just to Nottingham but to the whole country."
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