FUNDRAISER Denise Rugg has died from her injuries following a car accident in which husband Richard was also killed.

Mrs Rugg, 81, was well-known for her charity work in Wootton Bassett.

News of her death was broken to mourners who had gathered for the funeral of 81-year-old Mr Rugg.

The service, at Westerleigh Crematorium near Bristol, went ahead as a joint memorial to the couple.

The Ruggs were returning home from shopping at Somerfield in Malmesbury, when the accident happened on May 22.

Their Peugeot was in a collision with a white Renault Kangoo van driven by a Chippenham computer consultant.

Mr Rugg was rushed to Frenchay Hospital, near Bristol, where he died from his injuries.

Mrs Rugg lost her battle for life last week at Bath's Royal United Hospital.

Grandmother Mrs Rugg was a member of the Arthritis Research Campaign for Wootton Bassett and District and was also part of the Malmesbury branch of the British Heart Foundation, as well as the town's garden club and Malmesbury Theatre Club.

Members of the ARC held a minute's silence in her memory at a Golden Jubilee coffee morning in the town on Saturday.

Mrs Rugg's daughter Andrea, 56, who lives with husband David Clark, 55, in Cirencester, said the family were struggling to come to terms with the loss.

She said her mother was a quiet, well-liked woman who never said a bad word about anybody.

"She was unique and she was a lady," said Mrs Clarke.

"She also gave so much time to charity, that was her thing.

"It is just like a great big hole where you cannot see the bottom.

"They were there the previous Monday, and they have always been there, and for them suddenly not to be with us is indescribable."

The Ruggs, of Millbourne Park, met in the RAF at Station X in Bletchley during the Second World War, where Mrs Rugg was a code-breaker for the Armed Services.

She had been at University in Heidelberg, Germany, when war broke out.

Mr Rugg worked for Plessy's Communications, which later became Square D, and the couple moved to Wootton Bassett from Ilford in 1954.

Mrs Rugg worked as a receptionist at the Tinkers Lane doctor's surgery in Wootton Bassett.

She was a member of the town's WI and after it closed continued to meet with WI friends at Wootton Bassett's Royal British Legion hall.

The community stalwart was also a founder member of Wootton Bassett Townswomen's Guild, while she and her husband maintained an involvement with the Wootton Bassett Historical Society.

The Ruggs moved to Brinkworth in 1969, and then to Little Somerford, where they belonged to the village hall committee and Mr Rugg to the village's short mat bowls club. In 1996 they moved to Millbourne Park, near Malmesbury.

The Rev Guy Oswald, of St John The Baptist Church in Little Somerford, took the service at Westerleigh Crematorium.

He is also taking a family service at the crematorium at 3pm tomorrow and a community service is also planned in Little Somerford.