New bench a fitting memorial to an inspirational Dudley charity leader
A new bench has been unveiled as a permanent memorial to the woman who led a disability access charity.
The new bench was unveiled in an emotional ceremony at the Queens Cross Network in Dudley on Thursday in memory of Tina Boothroyd, who died in January at the age of 64.
Ms Boothroyd had been the chair of Access in Dudley, a user-led charitable organisation working to improve disabled people’s access to the local community and many of the service users were at the unveiling of the bench.
Her husband Paul was also in attendance alongside the former Mayor of Dudley Councillor Hilary Bills, current Deputy Mayor Councillor Mushtaq Hussain and charity patron Steve Waltho, who spoke warmly about Ms Boothroyd and what she had meant to the charity.
He said: "Tina's loss was very much felt across the charity and, at one stage, there was so much despair that we wondered whether we'd be able to carry on or not, and while we have a new chair now, we still miss her dearly.
"How the bench came about was that we meet at Queen's Cross once a month and the manager there, Paul Astley, is very supportive of the charity, so we all thought it would be the most appropriate place to have a memorial for her.
"One of the members suggested we have a nice bench in the courtyard where people can sit and enjoy the garden in the middle of the complex, so we thought that would be a fitting tribute."
The bench was funded from donations and will sit in the main courtyard for service users to use.
Mr Waltho said that Tina Boothroyd was a modest woman who let the work speak for itself and joked she would almost be embarrassed to have something like a bench in her name.
He said: "That was the sort of person she was and I said in my little intro that the event would be very informal and we'd keep it to a few little speeches as Tina would have frowned on us if she'd thought there was publicity about her.
"She never went for that side of life, but I think it's a very fitting tribute to her and it will always be there when we go to meetings and when people want to sit in the courtyard."
