My partner, Jim Farrell, who has died aged 58 after suffering from severe sleep apnoea, was both a natural comedian and a fighter against social injustice.
Jim joined the civil service at the age of 18, and quickly discovered that paid work could also include fun, alcohol and politics. A gifted orator and negotiator, he taught me that adversaries in the boardroom could be friends in the bar.
His political activism featured on the television news twice, once in the 70s, when he was a protester disrupting a National Front march in Brixton, south London, and later during the industrial strife of the Thatcher years. In 1980, when new government guidelines limited trade union pickets to six, Jim, as national officer of the Civil and Public Services Association, organised a challenge to them and was among the first people to be arrested, with footage appearing on News at Ten.
Born in Bromley-by-Bow, east London, Jim shared first prize in 1987 with his brother and friend in an ITV competition, by describing their happy years playing in bombsites. Jim started out as a working-class lad with a poor education. After leaving school at 16 he decided to attend evening classes which stimulated his love of the arts. He later became well read about the English civil war and leftwing politics.
Jim's career took a different path in the 1990s, when he was seconded to the Surrey Training and Enterprise Council as a manager providing opportunities to disadvantaged young people and adults. Jim gained an MSc in human resource development – despite having just one CSE.
In 2000, Jim developed ME/chronic fatigue syndrome and was never able to work again. The isolation of being housebound hit him hard, but he applied his typically positive attitude and humour to dealing with the debilitating illness. Jim used his limited energies to pursue new passions: cooking; creative writing; guitar and keyboard playing; and painting. His friends describe his summer birthday parties and brightly coloured shirts as "legendary".
In 2012 Jim was diagnosed with apnoea, which causes interrupted breathing during sleep. The treatment for that condition dramatically reduced his many symptoms of ME/chronic fatigue syndrome. With renewed energy he began making plans for a bright future.
He is survived by me, his siblings, Eileen, Mary, Josie and Terry, and his beloved cat, Lugh.