My sister, Grainne Morby, who has died aged 63 from cancer, was a remarkable woman with a lifelong commitment to advising and helping people, through her work for the London Lighthouse and Terrence Higgins Trust and for Great Ormond Street hospital, where she worked hard to give patients a voice.
Grainne was also highly influential in the promotion of independent advice. Working for the Community Information Project, she compiled the inaugural Directory of Independent Advice Centres. With Grainne's support, representatives from these centres began meeting regularly, leading to the founding of the Federation of Independent Advice Centres, now AdviceUK.
Grainne was the eldest of five children born to Paul and Dympna Morby. Paul was a producer for BBC's Gardening Time and passed his love of gardening on to Grainne. Dympna was an actor who in later life retrained as an English teacher. Growing up in Birmingham, Grainne attended St Paul's school for girls and excelled academically. Attracted by the active political scene, she applied to study sociology at Essex University, where she obtained a 2:1 and forged lifelong close friendships.
After graduating in 1975 she moved to London and joined the Westminster Communist party. She was a passionate believer in citizens' rights and, crucially, being able to enforce them. She remained a committed socialist throughout her life.
In the 1980s, Grainne managed the information service for the London Borough of Hackney, before becoming deputy chief executive at London Lighthouse, offering services to people with HIV/Aids. Having managed the merger of London Lighthouse with the Terrence Higgins Trust, Grainne became the latter's services manager for London; her focus still permeates HIV service delivery in London today.
In 2004, Grainne joined Great Ormond Street hospital as a family advocate. Advocacy was a model that came easily to Grainne – she realised that only by truly involving and engaging patients and parents in the hospital's work could the experience of the young people and their families genuinely be improved. Grainne used her knowledge and expertise to influence the executive team and trust board to further develop this engagement and, soon after, in 2008, was appointed head of the hospital's patient advice and liaison service, and of patient and public involvement, where her passion for helping to improve the experience of patients was apparent in everything she did.
She is survived by her partner, Jim, and by her four brothers – Peter, Benedict, Dominic and me – and our families.
