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Sue Estermann |
Powerful voice for conservation
SUE Estermann, who has died aged 65, was well known in South Hampstead as chairwoman of an influential conservation group.
A member of Acol bridge club, in West End Lane, she was a music teacher in schools across Camden and other boroughs in the 1960s and 1970s. Later, she worked at the needle exchange in Euston for 15 years, leaving in 2007.
Unmarried, Sue was in her 40s when she started fostering. For 10 years she welcomed youngsters into her large Victorian home in Compayne Gardens. The bonds formed with the young people remained strong until her death on October 5. Her sister Rachel said: “She definitely wanted to make sure the young people she’d fostered had come to terms with the fact she wouldn’t be around any more and should visit her when she was ill.”
In June, she made a powerful case in the council chamber against a development in South Hampstead, speaking on behalf of the Combined Residents Association of South Hampstead. Two months later, she became a patient at the Royal Free Hospital in Hampstead, where she worked in the ME research department.
Rachel recalled how a week before her death, she brought an oxygen cylinder with her to a party and paid tribute to her determination to “make the most of her life”.
She is survived by three sisters, a brother and her mother.
CHARLOTTE CHAMBERS |
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