A NURSE who took her Yorkshire wit to Africa and then became a tireless charity and church volunteer has died, aged 92.

Dorothy Dykes, who grew up on the North York Moors, retired to the York village of Dunnington in 1985 but spent her retirement serving others.

Her nephew Keith Flinders said: “Her idea of retirement was to spend the next two decades serving the community.

“She was well known in the village for her parish work, as lay pastoral assistant at St Nicholas Church, often taking Holy Communion to the housebound, and as the Neighbourhood Watch coordinator.

“She was less well known, because of her modesty, as a prison visitor and a volunteer for the Samaritans.”

Ms Dykes was also a voluntary worker for Age Concern and adapted her bungalow in Petercroft Lane to provide a guest room. She took in elderly visitors as part of the In Safe Hands scheme, so their families or carers could take a break.

She had been born in 1924 in Amotherby. Her father lost a leg in a quarry accident and took on a farm in Bilsdale on the North York Moors, with a wooden leg, a walking stick and a cart horse called Tommy.

She attended the village school at Chop Gate. She began training as a nurse in 1942, and then as a midwife in Middlesbrough, and became a Christian.

She spent two years at Bible College in Berwick-upon-Tweed, then enrolled with the Church Missionary Society in 1952 and served at a hospital in Nigeria until 1968.

Mr Flinders said she was then in charge of the charity’s work in a string of African countries “sorting out many a problem with no nonsense, a bit of mischievousness and good Yorkshire humour”.

She faced dementia in her latter years and was cared for by the staff of Grimston Court, where she died.

Her funeral service will be at Bishopthorpe Crematorium at 2.20pm on Monday, followed by a service of thanksgiving at St Nicholas Church in Dunnington at 3.30pm.

Rather than flowers, gifts in her memory are being accepted for the Companions of Brother Lawrence, a Christian group close to her heart.