Our mum Helen Stewart died on September 11th 2012 after a two year fight with Ovarian Cancer, less than a month after her 65th birthday.

She was born in Yorkshire although she grew up in Gloucestershire and spent 30 years living in Berry Hill where she was a Labour party Forest of Dean district councillor twice.
She was first elected in 1999 before losing her seat in 2007 and then was re-elected in 2011. When asked why she came back into politics she said it was to fight for the NHS, after the treatment and care she received after being diagnosed with Stage 3 Ovarian Cancer in the summer of 2010.

However, while she was very political, an active trade unionist and a lifelong supporter of the Labour party, having met a number of prominent figures including then Prime Minister Tony Blair and former US President Bill Clinton, her worklife was very varied.

One of her first jobs was working as a trained draughtswoman in the Admiralty in London under Lord Mountbatten in the 1960s, but after marrying Selvy Stewart, an Irish merchant seaman, she spent time moving around the country and among other things owned the Punch Bowl public house in Greysouthern in Cumbria, and ran the Social Club in Berry Hill.

In later life, after time as a housewife and mother to four children, she worked on the assembly line and as a trade union representative at the Rank Xerox plant in Mitcheldean, and then as a care assistant at The Chestnuts retirement home in Ross-on-Wye.

She fought her disease with dignity and after 18 months in remission she died peacefully at home less than three months after the cancer returned. But as a fighter she was clear that rather than flowers she wanted donations to fight Ovarian Cancer, a disease which is still one of the lesser known cancers.

We set up this page in her memory so that we can fulfil her wishes to continue to raise awareness of this terrible disease. All donations in her memory are most gratefully received.