FRIENDS and relatives have spoken of a beloved nurse who devoted her life to caring for others.

Liz Robinson worked at Witney Community Hospital for more than 10 years even after she had been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis.

For much of that time she was in a wheelchair herself.

She died on at home on December 2, aged 64, after suffering from MS for 32 years.

She was born Elizabeth McCarthy on June 2, 1948, in West Cork in Ireland and moved to Brighton in 1966 to train as a nurse.

It was there that she met her future husband Tony at his 21st birthday party on January 12, 1968, and they married three years later.

In 1972, Tony was offered an engineering job in Sao Paulo, Brazil, and the couple emigrated. A friend who she met there, Jennifer Duncan, said: “She was, and always will be, a lesson to us all.”

All of the couple’s children were born in Sao Paulo.

Her daughter Sabrina said: “The one thing she cared about more than anything was her children.”

Their first child Daniel was born on December 12, 1974, but passed away two weeks later. Mark was born on February 6, 1976, Sean on August 12, 1977, and Sabrina on September 20, 1978.

The family moved to Witney in September 1985, where Mrs Robinson resumed her nursing career in 1989 at Staple Hall nursing home, now Mill House. She took a job at the hospital in the early 1990s.

While working there she had to start using a wheelchair, but a special nursing post was created so she could continue working at the hospital until 2005.

Sabrina said: “She was a fantastic nurse, and the thought of having to give up work was awful.”

Mrs Robinson’s daughter-in-law Emma Robinson, who married Sean, said: “There are a lot of people who want to pay tribute to her – she was an amazing person.

“Even though she suffered with MS for a very long time she never once complained.

“Her spirit was an encouragement to everyone, she will be so sadly missed.”

Mrs Robinson’s form of the disease eventually left her paralysed, but her family said she kept her sense of humour until her last moments.

Her funeral was held on Friday at Our Lady and St Hugh Church in Witney.

Mrs Robinson, who is survived by her husband and children, asked that there be no flowers at her funeral, but that people make a donation at justgiving.com/liz-robinson2012