Tributes pour in for Claire Rayner, a 'great force for good'

Friends and colleagues paid tribute to agony aunt and campaigner Claire Rayner saying she showed her compassion and concern right up until the end of her life.

The writer and broadcaster - who died yesterday, aged 79 - told relatives she wanted her final words to be: "Tell David Cameron that if he screws up my beloved NHS I'll come back and bloody haunt him."

Rayner had devoted her life to caring for others - through her work as a nurse, an advice columnist and, later, as a campaigner for patients' rights.

She had not recovered from emergency intestinal surgery in May and knew her death was imminent over the weekend. She died in hospital near her home in Harrow, north-west London.

Her husband, Des Rayner, to whom she was married for 53 years, said: "I have lost my best friend and my soulmate. I am immensely proud of her."

Her death touched many with whom she had either worked or inspired.

Katherine Murphy, chief executive of the Patients Association - of which Rayner was president - said: "She was a figurehead and inspiration to us all.

Baroness Helena Kennedy said: "Claire Rayner was a great force for good in British society. I feel bereft."

Rayner, who is also survived by children Amanda, Adam and Jay, and her four grandchildren will be given a humanist funeral service for family and close friends only.