TRIBUTES have been paid to a tireless Selby district community fundraiser whose efforts helped secure a new home for the area’s only nursery for children with special needs.

Avril Perkins, 66, was instrumental in raising more than £70,000 for the Peter Pan Nursery in Sherburn-in-Elmet, as well as being involved in numerous other local charitable and community groups.

The under-fives nursery moved into the former caretaker’s bungalow next to Hungate Primary School in 2000. It had been housed in a rented portable cabin in Kirkgate since its inception in June 1985.

Organisers, led by chief fundraiser Avril, raised tens of thousands of pounds to help buy the property and pay for its complete renovation and extensive adaptation.

More than 200 friends and relatives attended Avril’s funeral at Bishopthorpe Crematorium on New Year’s Eve. She died on December 21 after suffering a heart attack.

Her husband, John, 65, paid tribute to his wife’s hard work for the community. “She was just so active,” he said. “We were a team for 42 years. She did so many things, she had a long record of doing good.”

The couple married at Leeds Register Office on July 4, 1966, after meeting at the Eagle Star Insurance Company in the city, where Avril worked on the switchboard and John was an underwriter.

They had two daughters, Janine and Elaine. “When the girls were at school, she was on the PTA for middle school and high school, and chaired both in her time,” said John.

In the late-1980s, the couple moved to Sherburn. Avril was one of the founding members of the Elmet Lions Club, formed in 1994, and was its president in 1996/1997.

She was also an active member of the Townswomen’s Guild of Garforth. She looked after the group’s drama section, writing and performing sketches and plays.

John and Avril retired in the mid-1990s and went on an around the world tour.

They moved to South Duffield five years ago, and both became members of Selby District Lions Club, where Avril was social secretary. For several years, she looked after her elderly mother at their new home, and the pair joined North Duffield Women’s Institute.