MOURNERS said their final goodbyes to a "pioneering" healthcare professor who lost her four-month battle against cancer.

Family, friends, university colleagues and senior health professionals attended the funeral of Ellie Scrivens at St Thomas's Church in Keele yesterday.

The 54-year-old was a lay director of NHS North Staffordshire (previously the PCT) and chairman of the former Staffordshire and Shropshire Strategic Health Authority.

The mother-of-two came to the area in 1993 as professor of health policy at Keele University and then became director of its healthcare standards unit.

She was diagnosed with a brain tumour in June and married her long-term partner and father of her children David Rogers soon after it was found to be terminal.

She spent her final six weeks back at her Keele home after undergoing palliative care at Manchester's Christie Hospital and the Douglas MacMillan Hospice in Blurton.

Her co-workers at Keele University yesterday spoke to the congregation about her "outstanding " academic career.

They told of her dedication to high standards, her support of colleagues, her love of chocolate and her growing an orange tree in the offices.

One employee, who had worked with her for 13 years said: "One word which I think of when I imagine Ellie is 'pioneer'. She was a pioneer in being one of the first academics to take up accommodation in the Science Park. 'Traveller' is another word that I conjure up. When I see Ellie in my mind now she is standing on a platform at Stoke station once again off to London to work with the ministers at the Department of Health.

"On the journeys I shared back with her, she taught me so much about how the department operated."

Another academic, who had worked with Ellie since she began at the university, spoke of how she inspired every single one of her colleagues to achieve the best.

She said: "She truly was one of the most extraordinary people I have ever known, not just for her intellect but for the person that she was."

The congregation heard how Ms Scrivens's family had owned newsagents in the southern suburbs of Birmingham.

She was born in Solihull and went to study a degree in social administration at the University of Exeter and complete a PHD at The London School of Economics.

Reverend Mandy Maxwell spoke of her thoughtfulness, kindness and stoicism in the last few months of her life.

She said:"She showed a fragile humanity and bold integrity in the face of an uncertain future."

Another friend, who had known her from her early years at the University of Exeter, said she had graduated with the best degree in her year.

He said: "She had a great capacity to expect the highest standards of herself and others."