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A charity stalwart who worked for Cancer Research well into her eighties has passed away.
Iris Collins died aged 84 last month but her charitable legacy lives on after hundreds of pounds were donated to her favourite charity through her family.
At Iris's funeral at Howden Minster, which was attended by 80 people, mourners were asked to donate money to charity instead of flowers.
It was the final act of a caring woman who worked as a volunteer at the Cancer Research shop in Goole for over 20 years.
Iris's daughter-in-law Sally Collins said: "Iris only stopped going when her legs could no longer carry her to the shop.
"She was very passionate about the charity and we all thought it would be nice for the donations to go the Cancer Research in lieu of flowers. We've raised over £300."
Iris, who lived on The Meadows in Howden, worked as a volunteer in the town-centre shop until ill-health stopped her six months before she died.
"She used to drive herself up there every Friday until about a year ago," said Mrs Collins. "After that her friend came to collect her."
Iris had a long and varied career which began when she took up a post with the Co-op when she was just 14. She worked for the Co-op until, at 38, she became pregnant with her only son Michael James, who came to be known as Jasper.
Iris's husband Wilfred died of emphysema two years later, when Jasper was just two years old.
Iris had to raise her son on her own, but she managed to make ends meet by holding downm two jobs - one as a corsetiere for the West Yorkshire firm Strodex, and the other as a market researcher for a number of national companies.
After her full-time career came to an end, Iris became a devoted grandmother to her grandsons Thomas, now 22, and Rowan (18). In 1988 she even upped sticks from her native Hull to live in Howden, where she could look after them.
"She was one of the most wonderful women you could ever wish to meet," added Mrs Collins. "No one ever had a bad word for her because she was so patient and giving.
"She kept going and going at Cancer Research even though she was not all that well. She had such a lovely way about her and it's a sad loss to all of us."
Iris's son Jasper said: "She was a wonderful woman who never stopped giving. When she came to live in Howden she was 65 - she had come to retire but she decided that she could better serve the world at the Cancer Research shop in Goole. She lost a lot of friends to cancer over the years."
Iris had been suffering from a bad chest for years and the official cause of death was bronchial pneumonia.
Published on 22nd May 2008 in News.
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