Jeanette Fish, fundraiser

She was the guiding light behind the Doncaster Cancer Detection Trust in the early 1970s, an organisation which went on to raise enough to build St John’s Hospice and to buy a scanner and around 80 other items for the Doncaster Royal Infirmary.

Mrs Fish, who was awarded the MBE and given the Freedom of Doncaster, remained active with the organisation, although she said its success was down to its team of volunteers.

The Trust had been registered in June 1972, after it emerged that the Infirmary was struggling to afford a bronchoscope, which would allow doctors to look inside their patients’ lungs.

Mrs Fish, who had moved from Scotland to Doncaster with her husband after the Second World War, used her nurses’ training to set up the charity, while at the same time sitting on a number of health boards.

The first fundraiser was a coffee morning at her home. Raffle tickets were 6d and coffee and a biscuit two shillings. The coffers soon swelled to £28 18s.

On the 40th anniversary of its formation, she reflected: “Everything we’ve done, we have done in partnership with the health authority. They have agreed to pay for the running costs, and to eventually replace the items.

“But I think we must be proudest of the opening of the St John’s Hospice in 1992. I think we were ahead of the game there, although Doncaster would probably have got a hospice eventually. We had starting talking to the health authority about that back in 1984.

“I am full of praise for the people of Doncaster who helped raise the money over the years.”

Mrs Fish is survived by a son, Alex.