Irene Dorward, a renowned Dundee charity worker and campaigner for better services for the disabled, has died at the age of 78.
She was paralysed by polio at 19 while training as a nurse at Dundee Royal Infirmary. This was before widespread vaccinations against the disease and she could not continue in her chosen career.
Her mobility restricted, she became a telephonist at the former Maryfield Hospital and the Royal Infirmary, and later trained in business studies, securing a post in the finance department of the former Tayside Regional Council.
Mrs Dorward obtained her HND in business studies at the college of commerce and when she started her course in 1979 was the first wheelchair-bound student at the Constitution Road site.
Special access arrangements had to be made for her to attend lectures.
In 1988 afer she collapsed without warning she was diagnosed with Post Polio Syndrome, a condition little understood at the time, and was treated at St Thomas Hospital in London.
She used her experience for the benefit of disabled people and in 1976 she took an advisory role in a council project to provide ramped kerbs in Dundee.
She later became involved with the Dundee Access Group, which produced a guide with information on wheelchair access and the location of designated on-street dis-abled parking for a range of venues across the city.
The direct payment scheme for clients to have a greater say in the employment of carers was another cause with which Mrs Dorward was connected.
She also had a close association with polio charities and was heavily involved with events in Polio Awareness Year, 1996. Educated at Morgan Academy, she grew up in the Maryfield area and enjoyed an active early life.
After becoming paralysed she was virtually confined to a wheelchair, although for a spell she was able to walk with the aid of crutches. She was proud at being able to walk down the aisle at her wedding in Baxter Park Church in 1965.
In her later years and with the development of electric wheelchairs she was able to have greater freedom. Irene is survived by her husband David and daughter Susan Joy.
Her funeral will be at Dundee Crematorium on Friday and will be conducted by the Rev Erik Cramb, the city’s former industrial chaplain and himself a polio sufferer.