A BLACKBURN nun who helped set up what is now Beardwood Hospital nearly half a century ago has died.

Sister Mary Columba was one of two nuns who set up the Our Lady of Compassion Hospital in Beardwood Hall, Preston New Road, in 1957 - and went on to care for patients there for 24 years.

The self-financing private hospital ran its own maternity unit, and Sister Columba attended the births of two generations of Blackburn children.

She died in Chichester, aged 85, after a short illness.

Sister Felicity, head of the Order of Servite Nuns, which amalgamated with the Sisters of Compassion 30 years ago, said: "Sister Columba was a most compassionate and attentive nurse, often staying up all night to be with a very sick patient.

"When a patient was being prepared for surgery she always pinned a Miraculous Medal of Our Lady on their gown.

"She left this Earth very quickly, and many sisters did not even have the opportunity to say 'goodbye and thank you' to her."

Sister Columba was born Susan Mullins in County Clare in Ireland and entered the community of the Sisters of Compassion in Birmingham in 1938.

After the war she visited a convent in Paris where she made her vows for life.

She then trained as a nurse and worked in a hospital in the Pas de Calais in northern France for several years.

She returned to Britain in 1957 when the Sisters of Compassion decided to set up a new hospital at Beardwood, and she nursed there for 24 years.

Sister Columba went on to care for elderly sisters in Bognor Regis and London.

But when a new convent, St Juliana's, opened in Bognor Regis she returned to the seaside - this time to be nursed by others.

Sister Felicity said: "Although she lived the greater part of her life in England, she remained 'Irish' to the very end."

Sister Columba's funeral service will be at Arundel Cathedral on Monday.