HEARTFELT tributes have been paid to a pillar of the community who worked passionately as a midwife and spent years fundraising for Colchester Hospital.

Tracy Tye, 51, passed away peacefully surrounded by her loving family after a long-fought battle with cervical cancer.

More than 70 bunches of flowers were placed at the gates of her family home, in Little Oakley, as friends and well-wishers paid their respects to Tracy.

Visitors included the families of children the loving mother-of-three had helped deliver.

Harwich and Manningtree Standard:

She worked passionately as an auxiliary midwife at Harwich Maternity Unit for ten years and qualified as a midwife in 2008, working at Colchester General Hospital.

Growing up in Dovercourt, she was a familiar and friendly face to many, known for being sporty, confident and caring.

Tracy found out she had a terminal illness in April 2016 and spent her remaining years creating special memories with her family.

In May 2016, she renewed her wedding vows with husband Colin, having spent 28 years married.

Colin said: “We are humbled as a family to see the amount of love that everybody had for Tracy and It’s incredible to see the number of lives that she has touched.

“Some people have left flowers to say that she helped deliver their child into the world, and that is just an incredible feeling.

“As a family, we would like to thank everybody for their thoughts at this time.

“We will always miss her, but her legacy will live on through all of us and through the children she helped bring into the world.”

Harwich and Manningtree Standard:

Her loving family said Tracy was “constantly thinking and caring for others”, fundraising for a number of causes including the Mary Barron chemotherapy suite and the Time Garden appeal at Colchester General Hospital.

With the support of close family and friends, she raised more than £10,000 which had been spread across these two causes.

Some of the fundraising activities included her daughter Jessica and niece Emily skydiving out of a plane and her two sons Joe and James taking part in a number of mud runs.

Charity nights organised by Tracy’s close childhood friend Anne Farthing at the United Services Club, in Harwich, sold out every time, with hundreds of people flocking to the venue to show their support.

Speaking last year, Tracy said: “I wanted to make every day count, I am so thankful to the people of Harwich when you see so many people turn up at these events and see how happy they are, it puts everything in perspective.”

Tracy spent some of her final weeks at St Helena Hospice and her family say she was very appreciative of the level of care provided by the nurses.

A fundraising page set up by Tracy’s family will continue to raise funds for the hospice at timelesstributefunds.org.uk/tracy-tye/