My friend Jillian Tallon, who has died aged 72 after suffering from progressive supranuclear palsy for some time, was a skilled typist and administrator. She supported several charities, chief among them The Compassionate Friends, an organisation for bereaved parents with which she became involved when her son, Oliver, died in his cot in 1967.
For her work with TCF she was made an MBE in 1996. The charity she worked with for the longest period was Highgate Counselling Centre in north London, established in the late 1960s. Jillian's connection with it ranged over 30 years as a volunteer secretary, with a further 10 years as its co-ordinator.
Born in London, Jillian was one of the five children of Jack and Doris Perry. Jack, a Jewish refugee from the Nazis, had settled in the East End and later founded the London Export Corporation, which pioneered trade with China. After the family moved to north London, Jillian was educated at a local school in Hampstead and trained as a business secretary. She married David Tallon, an accountant, and they went on to have five children.
Jillian's capacity for work was extraordinary. As well as bringing up her children and doing her charity work, she was my personal assistant in various appointments, supporting me as director of the Churches' Council for Health and Healing and being a fellow director of my publishing house, Arthur James of Evesham. She also made a notable contribution when we were both part of the Lin Berwick Trust, a charity that builds holiday houses which are equipped with every modern disability aid, for disabled families, enabling them to have safe and comfortable holidays.
She played the major part in two projects we took on together for the trust. The first was hiring the cruise ship Silver Sturgeon to take more than 100 people, half of them disabled, on a lunchtime cruise down the Thames. The second one was even more ambitious. We organised a celebrity dinner on board the royal yacht Britannia, with the Duke and Duchess of Hamilton as chief guests. As a result of this event, the Duke donated a plot of ground on his estate in Dirleton, East Lothian, for the trust to build a holiday home. The outstanding success of both projects was largely due to her organising skills and obsessive attention to detail.
Jillian and David's marriage ended in the 90s. She is survived by her children Victoria, Elizabeth, Alastair and Timothy, and by her sister, Vivien, and brothers, Stephen and Graham.