MARY Butterwick, founder of the Butterwick Hospice movement in the North-East, has died aged 91.

Mary Butterwick: The hospice campaigner who never forgot

Hospice chief executive Graham Leggatt-Chidgey told The Northern Echo: “Mary died peacefully. She just slipped away surrounded by her family.”

Mrs Butterwick OBE, who founded Butterwick Hospice Care in 1984, had been frail for some time, and died peacefully in the hospice earlier today.

Mr Leggatt-Chidgey said: “As conscious as we are that we have lost our charity’s founder, Mary was also a much loved mother, grandmother and great grandmother and our thoughts are particularly with her family at this time.

"Although Mary had not been actively involved in the direction and management of the hospice for some 20 years, she always maintained a keen interest in its work.

"She leaves behind a magnificent legacy arising from her vision, personal sacrifice and tenacity in establishing the hospice 31 years ago which will continue to benefit the local population for many years to come.

"We are placing memorial books, for members of the public wishing to record their personal condolences, within the hospices in Stockton and Bishop Auckland which will be available 9am to 5pm Monday to Friday.”

Mrs Butterwick, a mother-of-four, founded both the Stockton and Bishop Auckland Butterwick Adult Hospices as well as the Butterwick Children’s Hospice.

She was already aged 60 when she sold her own house to establish a day care centre for very ill people in 1984 in memory of her beloved husband, John, an ICI-worker who died in 1979.

In an interview with The Northern Echo on her 90th birthday, she remembered coming to the site of what is today’s ultra-modern hospice near the University Hospital of North Stockton in the early mornings. “I would walk around praying that it would be built...it was freezing,” she said.

Mrs Butterwick, who worked as an ambulance driver in the Second World War, explained that it was speaking to one dying man who made her deepen her resolve to establish a hospice.   

“He was from Eaglescliffe and he just said, ‘Mary, where can I go to die?’ He said he didn’t want to lay it on any of his children, but didn’t want to die in hospital. He was the third person that week to ask about finding somewhere to die.”

Asked how she felt about being 90, she laughed: “I don’t feel any blasted different. In my head I’m still 19. It’s only my body that’s got old.”