A TRAILBLAZING nurse who spent part of her “stellar” career in Keighley, and was living in Darlington, has died.

Maureen Bingham rose from being the youngest-ever ward sister at Pinderfields Hospital in Wakefield to working across Europe as a Nurse Expert Witness.

While in Keighley she set up a college that enabled a generation of enrolled nurses to train for the more senior role of Registered General Nurses (RGN).

Born in Ferrybridge as Maureen Carr, the second oldest of four children, she grew up in the hills of her beloved Gunnerside.

Working at Pinderfields she also became a nurse teacher and a sick children’s nurse, going on to help establish a facility for sick children in York.

Serving with the Royal College of Nurses, she was responsible for all the student nurses in the North.

On marrying Stephen Bingham, Maureen moved to Keighley in 1992 and established Dalesway Nursing Services, supplying staff to hospitals, nursing homes and private individuals.

Mr Bingham said: “Maureen saw a need for education of nurses outside the NHS and working with the Nursing Times set up Dalesway College of Health, the only such one in the country.

“She enabled hundreds of enrolled nurses to upgrade to RGNs - all this while serving as a magistrate, completing her degree at Bradford University and becoming a mother.

“She later used her wide knowledge of nursing matters to become a Nurse Expert Witness, working from her new home in Richmond. She again took up the role of magistrate, on the Richmond bench.

“She was one of only a handful of Nurse Expert Witnesses in the country, working for many years across the UK and Europe. She specialised in the areas of serious personal injury and children suffering birth trauma.”

Mr Bingham said his wife had not been able to overcome her struggle with ill health in later life, but had still lived as generously as ever.

He added: “In a life filled with give and take, Maureen was firmly in the former camp. Anyone who crossed paths with Maureen will undoubtedly be proud to have known such a vibrant and lavish woman.”

As an expert witness since 1990, Maureen prepared care reports to help lawyers with personal injury cases, specialising in catastrophic injuries such as brain and spinal injuries.

She served both claimants and defendants, working forensically through evidence in order to discover undisclosed facts.

Maureen had to says claimants at home, determine their needs such as care, aids and equipment, and give evidence in court to attend case conferences.

With Dalesway Nursing Services she employed around 200 nurses and carers, three home care managers, two personal assistants and six tutors/assessors.