Maureen Nicol and I were good friends for 50 years. This was odd because apart from our sense of humour we had virtually nothing in common. Maureen was fearless, optimistic, decisive ... and a Guardian reader, and I am none of these things. She also thought, unlike me, and to be fair most other people, that if she saw a problem, she personally should try to solve it.
As well as the National Women’s Register, she and her husband helped initiate the Kenilworth Footpath Preservation Group, two projects that have made life better for so many people. If there were more people like her who thought that they could do some good, and did, the world would be a better place.