By Jane Renouf

A WOMAN who made headlines four year's ago by trekking the 84-mile length of Hadrian's Wall at the age 96 has died, just three months short of her 100th birthday.

Carver Church at Windermere was packed for the memorial service of Doris Hancock, one of Ambleside’s truly unique characters, widely known for her intrepid nature, sense of humour and kindness to others.

Her walk from Wallsend to Bowness-on-Solway, which she completed over seven months in eight separate 'legs' raised more than £7,000 for Centrepoint to help homeless young people.

Born in 1916 in Stockport, Doris was no stranger to childhood adversity. Her mother died very early and her father was in the forces, so she lived with her notoriously disagreeable grandmother. She became a Domestic Economy Instructress, fitting her teaching career around care of her ageing grandmother and latterly teaching children with learning disabilities, which she loved.

Doris first visited the Lakes on camping trips, and on retirement she bought a plot of land in Ambleside and had a bungalow built on it with a garden, in which she spent many happy, hard-working hours.

Music was a ‘golden thread’ running through her life and she was an accomplished string and piano player. There was the quartet with close friends started over 30 years ago. She also helped to found the Windermere Orchestra based at Carver Church hall, and as someone with a keen interest in world affairs and a strong belief in socialism, she raised money tirelessly for disadvantaged young people.

Her friends knew her as a unique woman who always did things in her own way, accompanied at all times by a ready sense of humour expressed in peals of infectious laughter. She still cooked daily on her 1934 Europa New World gas cooker, and celebrated its 70th birthday by using it to bake scones for a fund-raising coffee morning.

A bargain book about Hadrian’s Wall sparked Doris’s interest at 95 in walking its length, but she thought it should be for a really good cause, helping homeless young people get their lives back on track. “The Great Spider Trek” was how she described the walk in the book she later wrote. Her only mishaps were a tumble into a muddy bog, and walking in on a semi-naked man when she mistook her hotel room!

Among her strongest supporters was Prince William, patron of Centrepoint, whose hand-written letter awaited as she arrived at her surprise 96th birthday tea party, en route along the Wall.

“I want to send you my very best wishes for the rest of your tremendous ‘spider trek’, he wrote. “I hope and believe your gardening training and walking stick will stand you in good stead along the way, not to mention all your wonderful friends and family who I know are supporting you.

With the best of luck

William”

Family and friends spoke with humour and affection at the moving memorial service in the church where she worshipped and it was Doris’s final gift to bequeath her body to medical research.