Rest in Peace: Betty Kerr in December 1988A WOMAN who raised thousands of pounds for charity died at her home on the Scottish island of Arran.

Betty Kerr, who lived in Old Town for 40 years, died of a heart attack five days after her 80th birthday on the island where she and her late husband were born.

In Swindon she worked as an independent estate agent and raised enormous sums of money for various charities, particularly for sick children.

Betty was also the driving force behind the PC Richard Webb Scanner Appeal, which helped raise a quarter of a million pounds towards a scanner for Princess Margaret Hospital.

PC Webb became paralysed down one side after an operation to remove a brain tumour in 1986.

At one stage £1,000 a week was pouring in. Pc Webb, an Old Town bobby, died two years later.

Betty, who lived in Berenger Close, was involved in another fundraising scheme on the day he died. She was returning from Lapland where she had taken 600 children's letters to Santa.

Her Operation Santa raised money for the Great Ormond Street Hospital Wishing Well Appeal and the Home Farm Trust for people with learning disabilities and she earned the nickname 'Mother Christmas'.

She was given a send-off outside the Adver office by the Swindon Concert Brass Band, the Kentwood Choir and the cast of Dick Whittington, which was at the Wyvern Theatre.

Betty came to Swindon in 1963 after the end of her marriage to Ronnie Kerr. They had three children and remained good friends. Her daughter Caroline, 52, a legal executive who lives in Windsor, said: "I will miss her so much because she was such a good friend.

"Even though she was so gregarious and loved to chat, she also liked to listen.

"Her passion was for the island of Arran but a huge part of her heart was in Swindon. She loved the town and its people."

Her first son Kenneth had cerebral palsy and died aged 16.

Caroline said: "That was why she was committed to helping sick children's charities."

Caroline and son Sandy, an RAF squadron leader, gave Betty five grandchildren, and she lived to meet her first great grandchild Alys, who was born in November.

For 10 years she was area manager for the Avon company, but later she ran estate agency Betty FD Kerr Selected Properties from her home in Old Town.

Betty, who died on Easter Sunday, will be cremated in Kilmarnock tomorrow, followed by a remembrance service at Kilmory Church on the Isle of Arran in Scotland on Friday.

Dave Andrew