A WOMAN who travelled halfway across the world to build a new life has died.

Mrs Cynthia Geddes, 77, died peacefully in Jamaica, having returned to the Caribbean after a hugely-successful stay in Huddersfield.

Mrs Geddes’ husband Huntley, who she married in 1963, and their daughter Lorraine were at her bedside.

Hers was a remarkable story about overcoming adversity.

It was a cold September day in 1953 when a young Cynthia arrived from the sunshine and warmth of the Caribbean to start a new life.

She had been on a teacher training course in Jamaica but nurtured an ambition to be a nurse, or to work in the health field.

She found herself very much in a minority when she first arrived in Britain but persevered.

She settled first in London, but then moved to Yorkshire and after brief spells in Sheffield and Bradford was offered a job as a health visitor in Huddersfield.

It was a dream job. She said in an interview years later: “I had always wanted to be a health visitor, to work in the community and to get into schools, working with children.”

In 1971 she began an Open University course in social studies but had to give up because of ill health.

But that never stopped her becoming a pillar of the community.

She was heavily involved with New North Road Baptist Church, where she served as a Sunday School teacher.

For many years she was a magistrate in the town and was also a leading figure on Huddersfield Community Relations Council.

She was a leading light in the town’s Caribbean Association and also found time to study for a City and Guilds qualification in fashion and design when she retired from her health visitor job in 1991.

It was in 1998 that the girl from Montego Bay decided that she wanted to return to Jamaica and she made the journey with Huntley and Lorraine.

A funeral service was held yesterday in Jamaica.