LONG-SERVING Hexham Constituency Conservative Association agent Susan Cresswell has died after a battle with lung cancer.

Tragically the 66-year-old, who became Hexham’s first female Tory agent in the 1980s, was given the devastating news of her diagnosis in September – the day before the funeral of her husband, Peter, who suffered from the same disease.

Despite the double blow, her family say they were astounded by her remarkable strength in the months leading up to her death at home on January 2.

Born in Penicuik, Midlothian, Susan was the oldest of four siblings and was educated in Edinburgh before undertaking training as a medical secretary.

However, it was a short spell as a nanny for a family in Newcastle which first brought her to the North-East when she was in her late teens.

“Politics was always in the family,” explained her sister, Kirsteen Rodden, who helped care for her in her final weeks.

“Our parents were members of what was then the Unionist Party in Scotland and Susan supported the father of the family she was nanny for in Newcastle, because he was standing for election to the local council at the time.

“She was a very active young Conservative and had a real flare for building relationships with people.”

Having joined the Scottish Conservative Party in South Edinburgh, Susan spent a decade working with former Tory cabinet minister and shadow defence secretary Michael Ancrum, who became a member of the House of Lords in 2010.

She even stood in a local council election in Edinburgh during the 1970s.

In 1987, she came to Hexham and took over from Ken Axton as the constituency agent – a job which saw her embroiled in the furore surrounding the 1992 General Election.

Sitting MP Alan Amos resigned after he was caught in a compromising position with a man on Hampstead Heath, leaving Mrs Cresswell to oversee the selection of a new candidate within the space of two weeks.

Former journalist and newspaper owner Peter Atkinson was the eventual choice, and he not only won that election, but also the following three.

Susan played a key role in guiding the Conservatives to become the first political party to gain overall control of Tynedale Council, which it did in 2003, before she took early retirement in 2007.

However, she continued her work as the first female secretary of the town’s Conservative and Unionist Club on Beaumont Street and as president and secretary of the Hexham branch of Soroptimist International.

As a keen supporter of local businesses, Susan also ran a bed and breakfast from the home she shared with Peter on Leazes Park.

Her funeral service will take place on Monday, January 16, at St Mary’s RC Church, in Hexham.