Tributes to Joyce at carol concert
TRIBUTES were paid to a muchloved charity stalwart from Whitworth at a carol concert held in her memory.
Joyce Ashworth, 88, died in October at Springhill Hospice following a brave four year battle with cancer.
More than 240 people attended her funeral at St Bartholomew’s Church in Whitworth.
Joyce was well-known across Whitworth, having been a volunteer at the town’s Cancer Research UK branch for more than 50 years.
Her work helped raise more than £360,000 for the Paterson Laboratory at The Christie, purchasing numerous pieces of equipment to help fight cancer.
And this year’s Cancer Research annual carol concert at the Riverside - held in Joyce’s honour - saw its largest-ever audience as friends and relatives came to pay tribute to her.
Among them was Dr Alan Jordan from the Patterson institute, who praised Joyce’s ‘determination and courage and commitment’.
The concert featured Whitworth senior and youth bands and the audience were entertained with lots of Christmas music and carols.
During the concert volunteers from the Whitworth branch of Cancer Research UK also handed over the £12,000 they have raised this year to the charity.
Speaking last month Joyce’s daughter Kay Mitchell paid tribute to her.
She said: “It’s strange because to me she was my mum and she did everything that mums do, but reading all the sympathy cards, we had about 200 between us, it was amazing to read what other thought.
“She was an inspirational person.
“All her life she loved singing and dancing and she was just a very, very active person.
“She was also a very selfless person, everything people she did she did for others.
“She was like a surrogate aunt and surrogate mum to so many people. It feels like I have shared her with the whole of Whitworth.
“She will be missed hugely.”