Tireless fighter loses final battle

Family and close friends of Helen Kelly knew the end was near when her condition rapidly deteriorated recently.

The union stalwart died of lung cancer in Wellington on October 14, aged 52.

Labour MP Trevor Mallard, a longtime friend, was among those who went to her bedside to say farewell on Thursday.

It was the end of a very long battle and came 20 months after the doctors gave Kelly only weeks, or possibly just a few months, to live.

‘‘She was determined to fight. She tried everything available publicly and privately in New Zealand,’’ Mallard says.

Daughter of union legend Pat Kelly and his political activist wife Cath, Helen Kelly was born to agitate. She started out as a primary school teacher but lasted only twoand-a-half years before taking up a job with the union representing kindergarten teachers.

She went on to work in other education unions, including teachers’ union New Zealand Educational Institute and the Association of University Staff.

In 2007 she became the first female president of the Council of Trade Unions, where she became a national force to be reckoned with. Her campaigns included fighting for safer conditions in the forestry and mining sectors following the deaths at Pike River Mine and a string of logging fatalities. She drove around the country to support the victims’ families and spearheaded court cases attempting to achieve accountability for the workers’ deaths.

Kelly resigned from the CTU in October 2015, after being diagnosed with terminal lung cancer in February that year, despite having never smoked.

She leaves behind her son Dylan from a previous marriage and longterm partner Steve Hurring, whom she married in 2015, after her cancer diagnosis.

The Public Service Association says she was an inspiration to Kiwis.

PSA National secretaries Glenn Barclay and Erin Polaczuk paid tribute to the ‘‘grace and courage’’ Kelly showed after her cancer diagnosis.

‘‘The best tribute is to continue fighting for a better life for workers.’’

‘‘Helen was an advocate with the highest integrity,’’ Federated Farmers president Dr William Rolleston says.

‘‘We have lost a great person.’’