Regarding memories of Pat Clark, could I give you mine – Tributes paid to retired teacher (Keighley News, January 22).

I arrived in Haworth in January 1999 after moving here from Manchester. I didn’t know anybody in the Haworth, and when I read in the Keighley News a new Rotary Club had been formed in Haworth, I went up to one of its meetings at the Three Sisters Hotel to make enquiries about membership.

The first person I met was Pat Clark and then her husband, Duncan. They made me so welcome, and after a short while, I felt I’d known them both forever.

I didn’t join right away – life was quite difficult for me at that time – but several months later I went back and again the first member I bumped into was Pat. She was so enthusiastic; so friendly and laughed so much. There wasn’t any walking away this time – I signed on the dotted line. And I’ve never regretted that decision.

I followed Pat as Rotary Club president in 2003. I’d just been diagnosed with prostate cancer and undergone surgery. I wanted to delay taking the office. But Pat wasn’t having any of it and told me: “Come on John, we’ll get through it. I’ll back you up!” And she did.

When Pat was diagnosed with breast cancer, I visited her in Airedale Hospital. Was she down-hearted? No, she was not.

Pat, together with lady in the adjacent bed and I, got told off by the staff nurse for laughing too loudly. We’d been reminiscing about embarrassing moments that had happened during our lives.

And all through her final illness I would meet Pat at Rotary meetings and, while you could see her physical suffering, that vital light in her eyes and her spirit were still burning brightly.

The last time I spoke to her was on the phone just after Christmas. I asked her how she was coping. She just laughed and said: “Fine, we’re having a great time and my granddaughter is here looking after me.”

Pat was as fierce competitor, as anybody who has ever played against her at table tennis will testify! And the fortunes of Keighley Cougars and Bradford Bulls mattered to her! She gave pancreatic cancer a run for its money too.

It’s fair to say that Pat encouraging me to join the Haworth & Worth Valley Rotary Club was the first step to me joining other organisations in Haworth, including the parish council.

COUNCILLOR JOHN HUXLEY Haworth, Cross Roads & Stanbury Parish Council chairman