TRIBUTES have been paid to a Newquay midwife who helped bring life to hundreds of families.

Susan Hall, known as Sue, was a dedicated midwife who lost her battle with cancer on Saturday, January 28, aged 62.

Her daughter described her as the "backbone" of their family.

She moved to Newquay with her husband Jeff in 1992, the year after she completed her registered midwife training and worked as a community midwife in the resort working with Newquay Health Centre, Narrowcliff Surgery, Newquay Midwives and at Royal Cornwall Hospital, Treliske, Truro.

Mrs Hall has four daughters, Louisa, Kim, Joanne and Ruth, eight grandchildren and one great grandchild – she used to joke with her family that she was too young to be a great granny, her family said.

Mrs Hall was passionate about her job and in a document written about her career she said: "After many years of raising my family I have finally achieved my ambition to become a practising midwife.

"I have not been disappointed; it proved to be a career which is both challenging and rewarding and one I thoroughly enjoy."

Penmount Crematorium, near Truro, was packed with family and friends paying their respects to Mrs Hall on Friday, where donations were collected for cancer charity Macmillan and the Special Care Baby Unit, at Treliske.

Colleagues from Narrowcliff Surgery said she was very well liked: "She was a lovely lady and the girls at the surgery will miss her very much."

A page has been set up in her memory on social networking website Facebook which has more than 130 members.

In a statement her family said: "You will see the same words used over and over again: 'Amazing', 'dedicated', 'kind', 'lovely', 'said what she thought'. She really was all of those things but beyond that, she was our mum, the backbone of our family.

"She was always, always there to support us, in good times and in bad. Always listened and always had her say, even if it wasn't what we wanted to hear.

"On the day of her funeral the sun shone and we all got to have a laugh at the service provided by Chris McQuillen-Wright.

"Mum was our everything and we miss her terribly. Knowing how much she has done for the community is comforting."

Mrs Hall had requested that her ashes be scattered in the baby section at Colan cemetery.