One year ago on Sunday, nurse and mother-of-three Alison Creech, 51, from King’s Stanley was killed in a tragic road accident on the A46 near Pitchcombe. Twelve months on, her family look back at her moving life and pay tribute to her compassion and dedication to helping others.
Born in Stroud in March 1964, Alison went to primary and Castle Street Primary and then Castle Street Junior School and enjoyed her childhood in the Five Valleys.
A talented and bright girl from a young age, she won a scholarship to the Girls High School at Downfield, where she enjoyed a lot of sporting activities.
After passing her exams and completing sixth form Alison was accepted as student nurse at University Collage Hospital in London, where she later qualified.
It was during her time in London that Alison met Mark her future husband, who was in the RAF.
He would soon become a central figure in her life and they would go on to share an enduring relationship that withstood all of life’s many challenges for the best part of 30 years.
The couple married at St Albans Church in Stroud in 1986. After their honeymoon the pair moved to Scotland where they set up a home in married quarters at RAF Buchan.
Whilst there, they started a family with the arrival of their first son Matthew. Not long after the arrival Mark was posted to RAF Portreath in Cornwall, so the young family moved from one end of the county to the other.
After Mark left the air force they moved back to Mark’s home town of Liverpool and Alison was soon back nursing, first at Broadgreen and later at The Royal Liverpool Hospital.
They moved into a home in Garston and had two more children, Dominic and Ellen.
After a few years, owing to Alison’s love of the Cotswolds and seeking leafier pastures to raise their children, the couple moved back to her home town.
They bought a house and made their home in Bath Leaze, King’s Stanley, a village they both grew to love.
Alison continued her career in nursing at Southmead Hospital in Bristol. Whilst juggling all the demands of full-time work and being a mum, she managed to find time to study and gained a degree in nursing Management from Bath University.
In 2011 she left Southmead, taking a position as a Theatre Nurse at Cheltenham General Hospital.
In a statement her family said: “Sadly Alison’s life was dealt a bitter blow with the sudden death of Mark in April 2014, leaving her with a profound sadness she was only recently coming to terms with.
“It was on her journey to work, early in the morning of Friday December 4 that Alison was tragically involved in a road traffic accident that claimed her life.
“As we have seen, Alison contributed a great deal to several communities across the county during the course of her life.
“It therefore seems a particularly cruel irony that her own life has been cut short in such a way.
“She will be greatly missed by her loved one and remembered by us all.”
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