TRIBUTES were paid yesterday to a devoted nurse who tended sick people and delivered babies all over a rugged rural area for more than 20 years.

Kathleen Woodman, who has died aged 69, always managed to reach her patients in the hilly district around Barnard Castle, County Durham, even in the heaviest snowstorms and floods.

She turned out day or night - and was reknowned for her bright smile and cheery greeting.

Dorothy Shields, a nursing colleague, said: "Kathleen was loved by all her patients and greatly respected by all the medical people.

"She was highly qualified and always maintained the highest standards.

"It needed a very special person to do all the types of work she did in Teesdale, and she really was special."

Her brother, Dr Geoffrey Woodman, a retired GP who lives in Northumberland, said: "She loved the dale and all its people and always found them ever so friendly."

Nurse Woodman, who lived in Romaldkirk and then Eggleston and Barnard Castle, combined the duties of district nurse, midwife and health visitor.

The daughter of Dr Athelstan Woodman, a Darlington GP, she trained in Birmingham and Newcastle before becoming a ward sister at Tadworth Court, the country branch of London's Great Ormond Street Hospital.

She gained high praise from specialists there, as well as in New Zealand, Australia and Tasmania, where she worked for a few years before returning to Britain. She retired some years ago.

She also loved animals, caring for hedgehogs in her garden and often looking after wounded animals.

A service of thanksgiving will be held at Eggleston Parish Church on Thursday at 1pm.

Miss Woodman requested that informal dress be worn and donations, in lieu of flowers, should be donated to the Great North Air Ambulance Service.