STAR of stage and screen Maxine Peake was among those celebrating a lifelong campaigner’s achievements at a special “This is your Life” style evening.

Inspirational Betty Tebbs found herself centre stage at Bolton Socialist Club being applauded by the acclaimed actor, family, friends and those who have heard about her remarkable achievements and the work she continues to do at the age of 97 to make a difference.

Mrs Tebbs, a seasoned peace and women’s right campaigner, said: “It was absolutely wonderful .

“Maxine read out passages from my book and the place was packed.

“I have been around a lot and this was something different.”

Mrs Tebbs, who lives in Prestwich, spent 18 years at the East Lancs Paper Mill in Radcliffe, where she stood outside every day for two weeks asking for a job and where the female workers became the highest paid women in the British paper industry, after she questioned why men were getting paid more for work of the same value.

Mrs Tebbs, who lost her husband in the Second World War, became a peace campaigner after seeing newspaper reports of the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945, campaigning through the Ban the Bomb movement and CND.

After moving to Warrington, she set up a refuge for victims of domestic violence and worked with abused women there for many years.

As Chair of the National Assembly for Women she attended many international conferences to advance women’s rights and to promote peace.

In 1986 at the height of the Cold War she spoke to 10,000 people in the Lenin Stadium in Moscow and met both the USSR and USA nuclear non-proliferation negotiating teams in Geneva.

In 2007, approaching her 90th birthday, she was taken into police custody when taking part in demonstrations against Trident at the Faslane submarine base.

More recently, Mrs Tebbs joined the anti-austerity march at the Conservative Party conference in Manchester earlier this month, as the government pledges another £100 million to a replacement for Trident and promotes nuclear annihilation as a reasonable defence strategy.

Only last week, the remarkable woman was inspiring those at the GMB Women’s Conference in Liverpool with her speeches.

She has been friends with Maxine Peake ever since her work brought her in contact with the actor at a CND event two years ago.

Mrs Tebbs said: “I was at the Peterloo Memorial March and Maxine sent over young women to talk to me.”

She added: “I feel what is the point of life if you do not do something useful with it?

“I am very lucky, I have a good family, I am to live the way I do because of the care of my daughter, and other members of my family and friends I have made in the peace movement and the other groups.

“That is a big reward, I am very lucky.”