A WOMAN known in Melksham for her devotion to the town's blood donors has died at the age of 86.
Joan Baines, of Woodrow died at the Royal United Hospital, Bath on Monday.
As well as her involvement with the blood donors, Mrs Baines was a keen skittles player and spent over 25 years as a volunteer at Melksham Hospital.
After leaving school she took a job at the Avon Rubber factory where she met her husband Geoffrey Baines, who she married in 1945. The couple had a son Alan who was born in 1952.
At the outbreak of war in 1939, Mrs Baines responded to a national call for blood donors, which was something she remained involved with for the rest of her life, and was still the local organiser for Melksham blood donors up until her death.
She was a committed member of Avon A Ladies Skittles Team and from rom the early 1970s until the late 1990s, she was a friendly face on the wards of Melksham Hospital where she took the hospital shop on a trolley to the patients.
Her funeral takes place at the West Wilts Crematorium, Semington, at 2pm on Wednesday.
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