My mother, Jackie Coutts, who has died aged 82 after an accident, was a tireless supporter of people who needed help. She ran a project for homeless people for nearly 20 years and acted as a McKenzie friend, assisting asylum seekers at hearings and meetings.
Born in Dagenham, Essex, Jackie was the daughter of Harry Denkmayer, a meat cutter at Smithfield market in London, and Catherine (nee Hughes). She spent her early childhood with her brother, John, in Barnardo’s children’s homes because their father was fighting overseas in the second world war and their mother was in a TB sanatorium. The family was reunited when Jackie was nine.
She left St Bernard’s high school for girls in Southend-on-Sea, Essex, at 16, and worked for the Inland Revenue in London until her marriage to David Coutts, a teacher, in 1959. They soon had two children and in 1962 moved from Southend to rural Lincolnshire, where they had three more children, kept a goat and chickens and grew their own vegetables. In 1973 they moved to Birmingham, where David gained a qualification as a special needs teacher.
Jackie studied sociology at Birmingham Polytechnic (now Birmingham City University), graduating in 1978, while raising her children. She had boundless energy. She went to work for the Family Service Unit social work agency, Small Heath, part of a national network of social work agencies. She was an active member of the Ecology party (1975-85), and an enthusiastic participant in CND marches and the Greenham Common protests.
When David died suddenly in 1985 aged 63, it was a great loss to Jackie, who never remarried.
In 1986, she moved to the village of Oakworth near Keighley, West Yorkshire, and became the project leader of Keyhouse, an organisation combating homelessness. She stayed there for 18 years, expanding it from a team of six with one small advice centre and an 11-bed hostel, into a county-wide service with 40 staff and more than 200 units of supported housing.
A tall, imposing figure with a commanding voice and an infectious laugh, Jackie was well known in Keighley, and admired for her campaigning and practical support for the people of West Yorkshire.
Jackie retired from Keyhouse in 2004 but remained an active campaigner. She volunteered at Bradford Immigration and Asylum Support and Advice Network and for Bradford Ecumenical Asylum Concern. Jackie also worked as a McKenzie friend, assisting asylum seekers at court hearings and appointments with the Home Office. She was supporting the claims of several asylum seekers at the time of her death.
Her Christian faith became increasingly important to her; she was a member of Christ Church, Oakworth, as well as Keighley’s interfaith group. She was passionate about politics and current affairs and enjoyed sudoku, crosswords and gardening.
Jackie is survived by four of her children, Tom, Angela, James and Edwin, and her grandchildren Sarah, Aaron, Rachael, Asher, Maiya and Hudson. Her youngest child, Cathy, a grandson, Thames, and her brother, John, predeceased her.