A WIDELY respected pillar of a village community who helped pioneer a new healing centre has died after a long battle with cancer.

Former Otham Parish Council chairman, Jeannie Pitt died at the Heart of Kent Hospice, Aylesford. She was 75.

Described as a stalwart of the community, Mrs Pitt had been married to husband Tim for 25 years and had lived in Otham village for more than two decades. She was a trained physiotherapist with a daughter and two sons from a previous marriage.

Mrs Pitt was chairman of the Otham History Society and Otham WI and helped establish a spiritualist healing centre in Maidstone. Living in Stoneacre Lane, Otham, she became a parish councillor in May 1999, becoming chairman in April 2003 – a position her husband had previously held. She was forced to resign from the parish council in April 2005 because of ill health. Mr Pitt said his wife was “universally loved” through her far-reaching involvement in community life.

“She was hugely loved and a really extraordinary woman who gave a great deal of laughter and fun to all she met,” he said.

Fellow parish councillor and friend, Cllr John Leeds, said she worked tirelessly to improve the lives of people in the village and was the driving force behind many village projects.

“She was a lovely person who was extremely helpful to everyone and will be sadly missed because she always had the village at heart,” he added.

The current parish council chairman, James Thompson, said: “Jeannie’s passing will be a great loss to the village. “She was very dearly loved and will be sadly missed”.