TRIBUTES have been paid to a former Colchester mayor who helped set up St Helena Hospice.

Honorary alderman Joyce Brooks died aged 89 after a six-year battle with cancer.

After being born in Westerham, Kent, Mrs Brooks, husband Bill and daughter Penny moved to Colchester in 1950 and adopted it as their hometown.

She stood unsuccessfully as a Conservative candidate in the Harbour and New Town wards, but was elected to serve St Mary’s in 1965 and carried on her role as a councillor for the next 25 years with education, housing and health committees as her main interests.

Mrs Brooks served as the town mayor in the 1976/77 term and commissioned a new mayoral robe to be made by students at Colchester Institute .

It is still being used by women who take on the role.

Amongst her achievements whilst serving as a councillor were helping to collect a 50,000-name petition to keep the military hospital which was presented at Downing Street on a stretcher, fighting to keep radiotherapy services, the formation of Phoenix Group homes, the charity SHAKE and a campaign to raise money for the Colchester swimming pool.

While working as a secretary at the district nurses home, she became aware of need for a hospice in the area and arranged for a public meeting in the Town Hall were a steering group was set up, and eventually St Helena Hospice was opened in 1985.

Shortly after receiving her alderman status in 1990, she emigrated to Perth in Australia where she lived for the rest of her life.

A sheltered housing facility was named Joyce Brooks House, in Oxford Road, Colchester, and she fought plans to close it from the other side of the world before it was eventually sold off by Colchester Council in 2012.

Alderman Mary Fairhead said she was devastated at the loss of her best friend.

She said: “She was a terrific person, very strong minded and if she believed in something she would go all out in order to get it.

“She was a founder member of St Helena Hospice which does such amazing work and she managed to drag me onto the committee which helped to set that up.

“It was a wonderful time – she was such a go getter.

“She could be quite formidable if you ever annoyed her or got on the wrong side of her.

“I used to tease her and say she had her mayoral look on, but she also had a great sense of humour and even when she moved we used to talk on the phone for an hour at a time.

“She has been in Australia for so long people forget how much she did.”

A memorial service for Mrs Brooks is being held in Australia on Friday. She leaves daughter Penny and son Tim.