A Green crusader is to have her last wish fulfilled with an eco-friendly funeral.

Muriel Thompson lost her battle against cancer on Tuesday aged 69.

A retired translator, she was treasurer of Shipley Green Party and a founder member of Bingley Myrtle Singers.

Her husband Keith Thompson, 63, was at her bedside at Manor-lands hospice in Oxenhope when she died.

"She asked the doctors how long she had left and when they told her just a couple of weeks she took it very philosophically before giving me a list of instructions for her funeral," he said. Mrs Thompson will be having a bamboo coffin, which is bio-degradable, and a woodland burial at Thornton cemetery. Instead of a headstone a tree indigenous to this country will be planted on her grave.

"It's what she wanted and even though she could do very little at the end her mind was always active and she was still campaigning and wanting to do her bit," said Mr Thompson, of Priest-thorpe Road, Bingley, a retired Bradford registrar.

"She campaigned against the relief road and fought to save Mornington Road church. She was a quiet, gentle lady but if she felt strongly about something she would stand up and speak out at public meetings."

Mrs Thompson was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1991 which was treated but by 1994 the disease returned and it later spread.

"Every year we had from then on we thought was our last and we went abroad about three or four times a year to make the most of our time," said Mr Thompson.

The couple, who met at the Bradford Old Choral Society in 1959, celebrated their ruby wedding in September.

A service will be held at East Morton Congregational Church on Tuesday, February 5, 12.45pm, by close family friend and minister Howard Jones, followed by her funeral at Thornton cemetery.

Born in Prestwich, Manchester, Mrs Thompson moved to Yorkshire in 1956. She leaves a son Mark, daughter Michelle, foster son Viv and three grandchildren.