A POPULAR Swindon pensioner, who touched the lives of hundreds, has died.

Olive King, who lived in The Mall, Old Town, lost her fight against cancer. She was 82.

Miss King was known for her generosity and her willingness to go that extra mile to help others.

Although she retired in 1981, the Northampton-born lay worker continued to take an active roll at her local church, St Mary's, in Commonweal Road.

Her funeral was due be held at the church at 2pm today.

In October 1999 she celebrated her 50th year as a licensed lay worker, which enabled her to conduct baptisms and funerals.

In the early 1950s she worked for five years as a missionary in Cape Town, South Africa an experience that she relished.

She then moved to Bristol where she was allocated to a church on the troubled Hartcliffe Estate, where she built up a close relationship with local people.

When she came to Swindon in the early 1970s she quickly sought to win the locals over and earned an admirable reputation for her caring ways.

Margaret Williams, 71, a reader at Christ Church in Cricklade Street, best remembers her friend for welcoming every new household in the Toothill area of the town when it was built.

Mrs Williams, a former headteacher of Oliver Tomkins infant school in Beaumaris Road said: "I first met her in 1971, just after she moved to Swindon. She must have visited around 1,000 homes.

"She just wanted to greet everybody in the new area. That was typical of the type of person she was.

"She was an instigator who would always try to get things done. She was one of the people to bring cubs and guides to Toothill.

"She was a truly remarkable woman and she will be greatly missed."