PENDLESIDE Hospice founder Muriel Jobling last week announced she was to step down as chairman of the organisation and take up the role of president. She spoke to reporter RACHEL EXTANCE about her decision. . .

DESPITE ending her 17-year stint at the helm of Pendleside Hospice, founder Muriel Jobling today insisted: "I'm not leaving."

A self-confessed workaholic, she was among a group of dedicated volunteers who began pushing for hospice care in Burnley and Pendle in 1987.

Muriel has been a National Health Service volunteer for 49 years and was the first chairman of Burnley, Pendle and Rossendale Health Authority. And it was her experience that led to her being chosen as chairman of Hospice Care for Burnley and Pendle.

But it was the determination and nerve she developed as the only woman among 150 men studying law at university in Manchester during the Second World War that gave her the tenacity to see the job through.

The 81-year-old said: "I knew there was a need for it through my practice. I used to get clients coming in who were living abroad and mum had no one to look after her. In those days a hospice never meant you had to have a building. We never thought we'd have the money."

Fundraising began with £1,000 from Muriel's uncle to provide a secretary and telephone helpline. Many of the volunteers recruited 17 years ago are still working for the hospice. And when work began on a purpose-built base in Colne Road, Reedley, Muriel gave up her solicitors' practice in Bank Parade.

The running costs began at £200,000 a year - now they are £1.1million, funded by a chain of shops and donations.

But Muriel has decided it is time to hand over the reins and "secure her succession," although will still take an active role in the hospice as joint president with Lord Shuttleworth and a member of finance and clinical governance committees.

She said: "I'm so pleased I've passed it on in good order with good will and confidence that things can only get better. I'm very fortunate to feel the hospice's future is in secure hands and I will still do what I can to promote its welfare."

But Muriel stressed that its future relies, as it always has done, on the good will of folk in Burnley and Pendle. She said: "So many people visit the hospice and have relatives in. It's important the service and care we give is first class and I've always seen the hospice as a bit of a light ship in the way forward for palliative care.

"In between we have to bully the government and others to give us money. We can't push people in Burnley and Pendle further, there's not much more they can raise.

"I've been in more pubs and clubs in the last nine years than I have in the rest of my life. It's been a rewarding experience."

Meanwhile, Muriel is going to devote her new found spare time to her home, pets and interest in music as well as her many friends. She said: "My friends have been grossly neglected in the past 17 years. I'm going to take life at a slower pace."