FAMILY, friends and colleagues of a Newport childcare worker who died last year planted a tree in her memory at the centre where she worked.

Brave Helen Finnamore lost her nine year battle with cancer in May 2010 aged just 42.

But determined she will never be forgotten, mums of the children she cared for at Newport East Community Centre, in Moorland Park, constructed a bench, planters and a plaque next to a tree dedicated to her in the centre’s garden.

The mums made the equipment using building skills they learnt as part of the Construction Youth Trust’s Pink Ladies course while their children attended the Sure Start Creche where Mrs Finnamore worked.

The mum of three to David, 23, Rebecca, 21, and Bethan, 17, was first diagnosed with cancer in 2001. She was given the all clear five years later but it returned when she was aged 39.

But despite battling the disease for almost a decade Mrs Finnamore, who lived with her husband Paul, 45, in Bassaleg, continued with her studies and successfully achieved a NVQ level three and four in childcare and education.

Newport’s Sure Start manager Jennifer Haig-Harrison said: “Helen always said she was privileged to come into this line of work. It was meant to be for her, she loved kids it was her ideal job.

“But I think we were privileged to have her. She was so well thought of by everyone that met her, she touched everybody’s lives.”

Mrs Finnamore’s parents Peter Kelly, 66, and Rosalinde Dix, 63, who attended Friday’s memorial event, said they were touched by the community’s dedication to their daughter.

Also in attendance were Mrs Finnamore’s grandchildren Amelia Page, aged eight months and ten-week old William Finnamore – both of whom she never got the chance to meet.

He sister Hayley Hopkins said: “It’s lovely thing for all of us, especially the little ones. We can bring them here to see nanny’s bench.

She was loved by everyone and it’s lovely people still want to remember her.”