FLAMBOYANT fundraiser Pat Thompson, known affectionately as the Lady in Pink, has died.

Mrs Thompson, who was in her seventies but never divulged her age, was renowned for the gnomes outside her home, Largesse, the last house before Alum Bay.

She was well known for dressing in pink and wearing glitter wherever she went.

Since moving to the West Wight in 1999, Mrs Thompson, with husband Brian, raised thousands of pounds from donations in collecting boxes in their garden for Freshwater Independent Lifeboat and the Wight Squirrels.

Mrs Thompson was born in Yorkshire and attended the University of Leeds, where she gained a degree in history.

She married her first husband, Terry, who worked for the Central Electricity Generating Board, and they moved to Plymouth and then Portishead with his work.

In Portishead she was a journalist on the former Portishead Mercury newspaper, and after her marriage broke down, she married Brian.

The couple moved to the Island in 1996, when Brian took redundancy from Lafarge Plasterboard, initially settling at Bowcombe, where he worked as a mechanical test engineer at SP Systems, Cowes, which later became Gurit.

They started fundraising at Alum Bay when the former owners of their house left some gnomes in the garden after moving, and they realised passers by would leave money for charity.

Mrs Thompson's love of gardening saw her expand the display over the years, enabling the couple to raise thousands of pounds for good causes.

She was also a parishioner of Christ Church, Totland.

She is survived by Brian, sons Richard and Alistair, granddaughter Matilda and stepchildren Helen and Mark.

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