Chloe, there's more to life than parties.

Byline: Coleen Nolan

WITHIN hours of each other, two young women just months apart in age, received a frightening knock at their front doors.

For Caroline Annis it was the news that her husband of just six months had been blown apart by a roadside bomb in Afghanistan last Sunday while trying to save a wounded colleague.

From that moment, nothing will ever be the same for Caroline again.

Hours earlier in a posh part of North London, 22-year-old Chloe Madeley received an early morning visit from a police officer wanting to know why her car had been abandoned, upside-down, after apparently hitting a Mini. Chloe was breathalysed and charged with drink-driving.

Apart from an impending court case Chloe's life will be pretty much the same by, er, around about now I guess - a hectic round of partying, writing a column for a 'celebrity magazine' and schmoozing her way to anywhere her surname might take her.

As the mum of two young adults I do a lot of "There but for the grace of God" murmuring as I read stories about other people's kids. And I don't claim my boys are perfect - but what gets my goat about Chloe is the way she represents a generation of girls utterly self-obsessed and intent on basing their lives on nothing more than the quest for fame. In a recent interview the student drop-out, whose only career to date has been as a reporter on mum and dad's show, said: "I look at people like Peaches Geldof and Kimberly Stewart who have made a career and a fortune for themselves in a short space of time. It makes me think maybe I should become more of a party girl."

Peaches Geldof? Kimberly Stewart? What have these high-achievers got in common? Oh yes, no obvious talent, a famous surname and a whole heap of money.

But tragically the Chloes, Peaches and Kimberlys have become role models for a generation left believing that being seen at the right nightclubs in the right clothes actually means something.

When in fact they are lives built on total nothingness.

And how different are those lives to Caroline Annis - who, at the same age as Chloe, is facing burying a husband and coping with his absence every day for the rest of her life.

She described her 22-year-old husband Simon as, "a true hero" saying, "We will love and miss him always."

Now that means something. Watching the suffering of young widows like Caroline is too awful. They are having to deal with the age-old misery and confusion of war while all around them girls their age are fixated on hair extensions and gladiator sandals (or are those already last season?).

That's why I was glad this week when the first Elizabeth Cross for servicemen and women killed in action was presented.

Hopefully, Caroline Annis will soon receive her Elizabeth Cross - campaigned for so brilliantly by this paper. It will be no replacement for the husband she dreamed of having children with and growing old alongside.

But, Chloe Madeley, it will be worth a damn sight more than a new Balenciaga bag and VIP membership to Mahiki!

No talent, a famous surname and a heap of money