Tributes have been paid to a “one in a million” Nurse, mum and fundraiser who has died of cancer in Walsall.
Maxine Plant, 52, spent 10 years as an Lymphoedema Clinical Nurse Specialist at Walsall Palliative Care Centre at Goscote, where she died of brain cancer on 15 January.
Her and widower Andrew Plant would have celebrated their 21st wedding anniversary on Valentine’s Day with their children, Zak, 19, and Amy, 16.
The mum of two survived breast cancer three years ago, but two years ago, the disease returned to her lung, then her brain.
A prolific fundraiser for cancer, Maxine more than £9,000 for Walsall Healthcare NHS Trust’s Chemotherapy and Breast Care Teams following her initial diagnosis, with the final donation made this week.
The money has already bought several wooden benches and tables at Goscote.
A collection at Maxine’s cremation on 4 February raised £1,000 and the family would like this to fund a memorial to her in the grounds at Goscote.
“The staff were so loving and compassionate towards Maxine and us,” said Andrew, a coach driver.
“This is despite many of them there knowing her, so it must have been hard for them too.
“We’d like all the money to go to the Palliative Care Centre because of the care she had. She worked there and died there. It was her perfect job – she loved it there.”
Andrew added: “Maxine was lovely – she’d help anybody out, she looked after the family and she worked hard.
“She was kind and put others before herself, and was even trying to organise a fundraiser a week before she died.”
Amy added: “She was a lovely mum – one in a million. She would help anyone and was a major role model for Zak and I.”
Maxine and Andrew met outside the nightclub Chicago’s in Wolverhampton. Originally from Coalpool, she attended Thomas More School in Willenhall, before starting her career at 18 as a Nurse in the Emergency Department at New Cross Hospital.
She worked there for many years, before switching to Cannock Chase Hospital then the Palliative Care Centre.
Keen reader Maxine loved family trips to Turkey, where they holidayed for 20 years, social evenings at the Bloxwich Showman pub and trips to Manchester Airport to see the planes land and take off.
With Maxine at the helm organising, her fundraising events were a real family affair.
Andrew and Zak would set up tables, and Maxine, her mum Carol Carless and Amy would fill them with goods, while also running a Facebook page with photos of items for sale.
Louise Rooney, Clinical Lead, Specialist Lymphoedema Service, said: “Maxine was a fantastic, knowledgeable Nurse who supported and treated the patients in her care to the highest standard.
“Her amazing charity work was one of her greatest attributes.
“Whenever you saw Maxine, she was always grinning and asking us to get our money out. She was a proper ‘Del Boy’.
“Even in the hospice Maxine was arranging raffles and her annual Easter afternoon tea. What a great legacy.
“Maxine was a big part of the Lymphoedema service and will be missed by her colleagues, patients, and the wider palliative care group.”
Georgie Westley, Walsall Healthcare’s Fundraising Manager, said: “Maxine was a really kind, lovely and thoughtful person and it was so typical that despite struggling with her own health, her first thought was of others, and she raised so much money.”