A LONG-SERVING school governor and founder member of Colchester’s Centurion Rotary Club has died.

Lorna Kean suffered complications arising from chemotherapy, following breast cancer.

She died in the West Bergholt ward at Colchester Hospital aged 73.

Mrs Kean was on the governing body at Philip Morant School for 25 years.

She was chairman for several years before it became an academy and was appointed a national leader of governors, just before being diagnosed with breast cancer.

She was also a founder member of Colchester Centurions Rotary Club, serving a term as president, and played a major part in fundraising projects for charities such as St Helena Hospice and Colchester Hospital Charity (CoHoC), also organising a successful race night for the new chemotherapy department at the Colchester Hospital.

Mrs Kean was a former student at Margaretting Primary School, Chelmsford County High School for Girls and then Mid-Essex Technical College.

She qualified to become a licensed conveyancer and set up her own practice, specialising in property law.

Away from her work, Mrs Kean loved spending time with her family and friends.

She was a keen reader and had a great interest in history, being an active member of South Woodham Ferrers History Group. She was also part of the Peldon, Abberton and Wigborough Society (PAWS) - a friendly, sociable ladies’ group which was formerly the Peldon Women’s Institute.

Mrs Kean was warm, caring and highly-respected in her profession.

She will be remembered as a great friend and a force to be reckoned with, who fought cancer with a laugh and a smile to the end.

She leaves husband Robert, a retired civil engineer, and daughters Emily Dix, a survey officer, and Victoria Laytham, a senior clinical trials pharmacist with the Imperial Group, based at Hammersmith Hospital.

She also had two granddaughters, Poppy and Annabel, and a grandson, Montgomery.