AFTER enduring the grief of suddenly losing her husband to cancer in 1979, Mary Butterwick devoted her life to helping others find comfort, peace and dignity in death.

In the hospital, Mary was told the best thing she could do would be to go home and try to forget John, the father of her four children.

Instead, she wrote down her vision of a home where dying people and their families could be cared for and guided through their final moments together.

Mary sold her home and put all her savings into buying 10 Hartburn Lane, in Stockton – a crumbling Victorian semi that would be converted into The John Butterwick Day Care Centre, which opened in 1984.

The former Second World War ambulance driver found herself sleeping on a camp bed in a room without heating and cracks in the windows to make way for more patients.

Struggling and lonely, her strong Christian faith drove Mary onwards and she even managed to treat families in their time of need with homemade cakes and scones baked daily.

Months later, renovation debts were paid off and charity status was secured for the centre, which became the Butterwick Trust and moved to a former convent in Bishopton Road, Stockton.

The selfless mother-of-four was honoured with the Freedom of the Borough by Stockton Borough Council and in a speech at Stockton Town Hall, Mary thanked the community for their support, saying: “It is not our hospice, it is your hospice. It belongs to the people of this borough of Stockton and its surrounding community.”

When demands on the Bishopton Road site become overwhelming, a £1.2m purpose-built centre opened on July 22, 1997, next to what is now the University Hospital of North Tees.

Since then, the hospice has grown to care for children in Stockton, adults in Bishop Auckland, and operates three day care hospices in Barnard Castle, Sedgefield and Stanhope, plus a hospice at home service.

In 2002, Mary was honoured with an OBE for her resolute dedication to helping the terminally ill and those with life-limiting illnesses.

After stepping back from active involvement in the direction and management of the charity, Mary was a regular visitor to her hospices and inspired countless volunteers and fundraisers to support the cause, right up until her death in 2015, aged 91.

Speaking after the court hearing at which Graham Leggatt-Chidgey admitted fraud, Mary's grandson, Stephen Ward said he was glad his nan did not live to hear of his crimes.

"She sold everything, gave everything away, to just set up a charity to try and help people," he said. "If she was here now she’d be absolutely mortified."

But it is not the abhorrent and arrogant actions of one man that will be remembered by countless North-East families in years to come – it is the generosity of one woman who made her dreams a reality.

She said: “The hospice was never in my plans in life, but things change. I believe I was asked to do this. It all came quite naturally.

“I couldn’t have done it without the community and my faith. The hospice has a great future ahead of it and I am privileged to be a part of it.”