IT would be very hard to sum up Elizabeth Tatman’s life in one sentence or in one achievement.

This unusual, practical woman – now 85 – has set her formidable organisational talents and deep compassion to work in so many areas that even trying to chronicle them with her face-to-face is a tough task.

Elizabeth was born in Bury, the youngest of two girls. Her father ran a cotton waste company and, at Bury Grammar School where she was educated, she saw herself going into the family business.

“The only slight problem,” she explained, “was that I knew that women were not then allowed on the old Cotton Exchange because I’d been there as a guest and really loved the buzz and the atmosphere.”

Her father was also a Bury councillor, kickstarting Elizabeth’s own strong social conscience from an early age.

Instead of a career in cotton, Elizabeth decided instead to enrol on an unusual three-year teacher training course in Twickenham which had a strong focus on the power of play.

She actually returned to Bury Grammar School as a teacher of seven and eight year-olds in 1958 and by then had met her future husband, fellow teacher Michael.

The couple married in 1959 and made their first home in Bolton, not far from Bolton School where Michael taught. They had three children, Catherine, Sarah and Alexander and now have seven grandchildren.

To fit around her young family but return to work, Elizabeth started her own playgroup at home in 1966 and ran this until 1973. This introduced her to the world of play and playgroups. She did some further education teaching at the old Bolton Institute and, through the Pre-school Playgroups Association (PPA), ran training courses.

“I always felt strongly about the importance of play in a child’s development, and still do,” she said. “We want children to have the best provision, well-resourced, but also without stress – and with a lot of fun!”

In 1972, she became Training and Development Officer for the PPA in the North-west. She left after two and a half years and taught social and childcare classes at Accrington and Rossendale College.

In 1979, Elizabeth became pre-school education adviser for Bolton Education Department. She also first made contacts with the early years’ field in Paderborn – Bolton’s twin town in Germany – establishing a long contact there.

From early in her married life, she had been interested in Bolton Little Theatre, creating a bond that has lasted for 50 years. “I never saw myself acting (although her husband is an acting stalwart there) but doing some of the many jobs that allow the productions to take place,” she said.

As a result, she has been Chairman, front-of-house, worked on development and is currently lettings’ officer as well as helping man the bar.

She also became Chairman of the National Toy Libraries Association, for which she received an MBE.

In 1992, she became a founder member of the newly-formed Bolton Rotary Club of Daybreak. Around this time, she was also deeply affected by pictures emerging from Romania after the demise of deposed president Nicolae Ceausescu. The photographs of abandoned children had a profound effect on Elizabeth and she persuaded her fellow Rotarians to support an aid trip to Romania.

At Iasi (pronounced Yash) she visited the Santa Maria Children’s Hospital among other places, where around 80 children of various ages lived. There and then she pledged to help – and has done for the past 20 years, taking clothes, books, toys and other aid and helping train staff in understanding the value of play for these forgotten children.

She has also found time over the years to study for an MBA, later applying this business knowledge to the many organisations she has been involved in. She was Chair of Smithills Hall Trust and has had various high-profile roles within Rotary which have often involved travel around the world, and still do.

Ask Elizabeth what she is most proud of in her life and, after her children, she points to “anyone who has come up to me and said that I have made a difference to their life.”

And helping change other people’s lives is definitely not over yet for Elizabeth Tatman.