It is with shock and sadness that we record the death of Sylvia Davis. 

Sylvia had been unwell since November, but it was only after Christmas that she was diagnosed with multiple and aggressive cancers.   She was admitted to the Leicester Royal Infirmary on January 16th, and died a week later.

Sylvia was born and raised on Merseyside and graduated from Exeter University in Mathematics.   While she was at Exeter she developed a passion for playing the ‘cello which stayed with her all her life.   She taught for a time in Hertfordshire and then joined the staff of the new comprehensive at Countesthorpe, which in its early days was progressive and radical, with a philosophy that suited her own views on education.   She moved away for a brief but unsatisfactory spell in academic research, but returned in 1974.   While there she developed a teaching aid for young autistic children, which was published, and she also wrote a chapter of a book called ‘Slow Learners’.   Her care and concern for the less able was already showing.

The ‘cello introduced her to her husband-to-be, Brian, then Vicar of Countesthorpe, when he was arranging a concert at Foston in which Sylvia played.   They were married in 1978, and Sylvia gave a lot of time and energy to the community development of the church, turning the old village school into a Church Centre and setting up the Rainbow Shop, an independent charity shop whose profits went to Christian Aid.   All this was combined with being a full time mum to Eleanor and especially to Ashley, who was born with a hole in his heart, needing open heart surgery twice in his first five years, and who developed further disabling conditions as he grew up.

It was after Ashley’s second major heart operation that Sylvia did some supply teaching at the Royal Infirmary and met a teenager who had suffered a severe brain injury as a result of a road traffic accident, and saw the need for further care and rehabilitation after he was discharged – at that time unavailable in Leicester.   She was eventually appointed to the post of part-time co-ordinator for Leicester Headway, which was just being established.   That was in 1990, and there were just her and a team of volunteers.   When she retired fifteen years later, we had the extended Headway House, a team of 17 staff at the Centre and in outreach work around the city and counties of Leicestershire and Rutland, and an operation costing nearly £250,000 annually.   This growth was almost entirely due to Sylvia’s commitment and dedication.

By now Brian had accepted the challenge of becoming Vicar of Hinckley.   Much more involved with Headway, Sylvia’s parish activities were at a lower level but typically committed, especially to those which helped the poor.  They inherited a huge vicarage garden, which Sylvia threw herself into developing.   Always a keen gardener, after retiring from Headway she not only looked after their own, but another at the house she and Brian had bought for their retirement, another at Ashley’s house in Hinckley, and two for her daughter and son-in-law who had an army house and also one of their own in Market Harborough.   Indeed the back pains which proved to be the first symptom of her final illness were at first attributed simply to an excess of gardening.

The effect Sylvia had had on so many lives was dramatically illustrated when Hinckley Parish Church was filled almost to overflowing for the service of celebration and thanksgiving on February 2nd.   Sylvia had chosen a simple cardboard coffin and asked that it be decorated by the Headway members attending the day centre.   The service was led by the Bishop of Leicester, and the sermon given by Canon Anthony Harvey, who had preached at Sylvia and Brian’s wedding.   Tributes were given by Revd Janet Dudley, formerly assistant priest at Countesthorpe, by Headway’s Day Centre Manager Marietta Sharp, and by Sylvia’s daughter Eleanor.   To read  Marietta’s tribute, please click here.

Headway’s members, staff and trustees join in expressing our profound sympathy to Brian, Eleanor and Ashley, and our heartfelt thanks for everything that Sylvia did for us.