My indomitable mother Hazel Phillips, who has died aged 77, was an active force both at home and at large. She trained as a primary school teacher at Homerton College, Cambridge, in the 1950s, did teaching practice at Torriano infants school and worked at Rhyl primary school, both in poor areas of Camden, north London, before marrying Nigel Phillips, whom she had met at Cambridge, in 1957. She ran a nursery school in the front room of our family house in Mill Hill for 25 years, and supported numerous charities. Her three children remember her energetic organisation of jumble sales, newspaper collections and sponsored walks on behalf of Shelter, the Conservation Society, Population Concern and others.
When she was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, she was determined not to be stopped by her illness. From 1977 to 1985, she studied for and completed an Open University degree in biology and philosophy, attending summer schools in her wheelchair. At the same time, she wrote a book (Choose the Sex of Your Baby, 1997) about a passionately held theory of hers: that couples can influence the gender of their children by carefully timing conception.
The MS progressed and her physical freedom diminished, but she continued to work with the aid of computers. Until the very end, she persevered in answering queries related to her book, writing poems for the birthdays of friends and relations, and sending sympathetic letters to anyone she knew was suffering.
She was born in Yakusu, a village in what was at the time the Belgian Congo, where her father, Clement Chesterman, was a medical missionary specialising in tropical diseases and her mother, Winifred, ran a school for local children. The family returned to the UK soon after Hazel's birth and she was brought up (apart from a period of wartime evacuation to Buckinghamshire) in West Hampstead, London. Like her parents, she lived a life of service to others.
Mum had very definite tastes and opinions on everything from dress (she wore shocking pinks and bold turquoise, often together) to philosophy (she favoured Hume and Spinoza and dismissed Wittgenstein). She had prescriptions for many of the world's ills. For her own illness, there was no prescription, and she experienced deep frustration, but her cheerfulness and courage and all that she achieved through sheer persistence and determination were an inspiration to everyone who knew her.
She is survived by Nigel; her children, Penny, Dick and me; and two grandsons, Jamie and Matthew.