Agony aunt and NHS campaigner Claire Rayner dies at 79

 

Tributes have been paid to agony aunt Claire Rayner, who has died at the age of 79.

 

The award-winning journalist had remained poorly after intestinal surgery in May. She died in hospital near her home in Harrow in London.

 

She told her relatives she wanted her last words to be: "Tell David Cameron that if he screws up my beloved NHS I'll come back and bloody haunt him." (Better keep your light on at night from now on, Dave :laugh3:)

 

Her husband Des Rayner said he had lost his soul mate and best friend.

 

She worked for the Sun, Sunday Mirror and Woman's Own and was named medical journalist of the year in 1987. She also wrote a string of novels.

 

Her restaurant critic son, Jay, told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "She had been through a hell of a lot of health troubles over the last five months and some of us thought towards the end that she actually just wanted to give up.

 

"But late on Sunday night, when things were looking a bit bleak, she was offered one last chance and I honestly thought she would say, 'No, just let me go,' and she didn't.

 

"It was very much in the nature of her that she said, 'I will try the dialysis.' It didn't work, unfortunately. She had led an absolutely amazing life and I am very, very proud of her."

 

Mrs Rayner, who had two other children - Amanda and Adam - and four grandchildren, will have a humanist funeral for family and close friends.

 

A former nurse and midwife, for many years she was also president of the Patients Association.

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-11520609

wtf is an "agony aunt"?!? That's the second time I've seen that phrase. The first time was on Debs' twitter bio (she refers to herself as an agony aunt).

 

EDIT: Nevermind, I just googled it.