A NORTH-EAST woman who invented a way of speaking that helped thousands of deaf people has died.

Muriel Shepherd won an MBE for her work with the hard of hearing.

She also founded the Darlington branch of the British Association of the Hard of Hearing.

Born in Alnwick in 1920, the daughter of a Presbyterian minister, she went to Darlington Teacher Training College in her teens and initially taught at George Dent Nursery.

After a friend gave birth to a daughter who was born profoundly deaf, she was inspired to go to Manchester University to train to teach people with hearing difficulties.

Returning to Darlington, she quickly made her mark in the town and became an expert in deaf communication.

In 1947, she got together with the late Bill Snowdon, a teacher of the deaf in South Shields, and began to create the art of lip speaking. She took the skill to the conference of the newly-formed British Association of the Hard of Hearing in London, where she interpreted speakers for the audience. Afterwards, people came up to her to say the method was like hearing all over again.

In 1951, she married her husband, George, in Low Fell Presbyterian Church after a whirlwind romance.

Throughout her life, her expertise was called on to interpret funerals, weddings and court cases and she also translated services in Durham, York and Coventry cathedrals on National Day for the Deaf last month.

In 1981, the year she retired as deputy head of Glebe School, North Tyneside, she was awarded the MBE for services to deaf people.

Continuing an active role with the British Association of the Hard of Hearing, she also became the president of the Association of Lip Speakers, and gave talks and presentations around the country as well as attending conferences in Europe.

As a respected member of the Northgate United Reformed Church, she became an elder, a position she held for many years.

She leaves daughters, Susan and Moira, and son John, and six grandchildren: Andrew, Sarah, Claire, Jonathan, Robyn and Sam.