WORKING with young people is challenging and takes much resilience, patience and determination.

The results, fortunately, can be life-changing and personally satisfying because they often set youngsters on the right lifepath when the wrong one may have beckoned.

Christine Partington worked her magic on many youngsters, not in a preachy or bossy way but as someone for whom the word “inspirational” could have been created. She worked at the Wellfield Connexions Project in Deane and was a governor at Brandwood School for 20 years.

Sadly, she died earlier this month from cancer at the age of 66 and one of her sons, Simon, said that although the past few months had been very difficult, they had also been “so humbling” as her family began to realise the impact that Christine had made on the lives of others.

It may be a small consolation to her grieving family and friends that Christine made a real difference to others.