My friend Nell Whittingham, who has died aged 96, relished adventure. When her husband Barrie’s career took their family to Zambia in the 1960s they had a Piper Tri-Pacer aircraft and flew the Flying Doctor service – Nell also helped with weather reports and logistics. In the 70s they lived in Swaziland and Sudan, then Nigeria, where Nell set up a weather station to monitor wind for the Savannah Sugar Factory. During a stint in Papua New Guinea, she renovated a dug-out canoe and sailed in shark-infested waters.

In 1980 Nell and Barrie moved to Foggathorpe, East Yorkshire, where she discovered the 11^th-century Norman church of All Saints, Aughton, where later she became churchwarden for more than 30 years.