A champion of the Bradley community has died suddenly aged 71.
Judith Balbontin died at her home in Bradley.
She grew up in Huddersfield with her parents and two brothers and her father Gerald ran Whiteley’s the family Bakers.
She married her husband Enrique in the early 60s and moved to live in Italy for a time before returning to Huddersfield and starting a family.
The couple had four children, Helen, Victoria, Rose and Patrick.
Judith cared passionately about her community and was instrumental in setting up Bradley Tenants and Residents Association and a range of activities to enhance living in the area of local people.
She was a lunchtime supervisor at a Bradley school when her children were small and later trained in secretarial duties in her 50s.
Initiatives she has been involved in over the past 25 years include fun days and children’s parties, clinics for babies and the elderly, theatre visits, annual street cleaning and coffee mornings.
One of her proudest achievements was setting up the independent charity Woodscape which looks after a group of woods including Bradley Gate Wood and Dyson Wood, in Bradley.
Green-fingered residents continue to enjoy the large allotments and greenhouse and there is a popular weekly healthy living walk.
Her son-in-law Stephen, Helen’s husband, said: “She was a leading light of Bradley Tenants and Residents Association and Woodscape.
“Her commitment shone out and really transformed the woodland with the other volunteers to make it an enjoyable place for everyone and make it special.”
Mrs Balbontin’s funeral was attended by more than 100 mourners at Fixby Crematorium and afterwards at a Bradley social club.
