THE woman who inspired the Evening Press Fight for Sight campaign has died suddenly at the age of 72.

Jean Heaven, from Haxby, collapsed at her daughter's home near Hemingbrough.

Mrs Heaven hit the headlines last year when the Evening Press revealed how she and her husband, Stanley, used £1,850 of their savings so she could have a private cataract operation on one eye, to avoid waiting up to a year for NHS treatment.

But then she went to the back of the list for the operation on her other eye at York District Hospital (YDH), though it was done later that year.

Mrs Heaven became a focus for complaints about waiting lists and about the treatment of older people by the NHS. She even got phone calls from people who wanted to discuss their problems with her.

Originally from Kingswood, near Wootton-under-Edge, in Gloucestershire, Mrs Heaven, a former legal secretary and nursing auxiliary, retired with her husband to Haxby in the early 1980s.

A strong supporter of the Retired Civil Service Association and the coronary support group at YDH, Mrs Heaven was very fit and walked 80 miles of the West Highland Way in five days in May.

Her daughter, Nette Heaven-Terry, said shortly before she died she had taken two grandchildren walking in local woodlands, then celebrated her husband's birthday, when most of her immediate family spoke to her when they rang up to wish Mr Heaven well.

"She had a lovely last two days," Mrs Heaven-Terry added.

A cash bid has been made for new facilities at YDH which could mean cataract waiting times being cut from up to 17 months to six months, and Mrs Heaven-Terry said her mother took satisfaction from that.

"I'm sure she felt that she had done something to improve matters; that was always her intention.

"She was never one to keep her opinion to herself - she did something about it."

Mrs Heaven leaves her husband, her children Frank, Linda, Judy, Martin, David, Nette and Tony, and 14 grandchildren.