Baroness Masham, Paralympian and longest serving female peer, dies aged 87

Baroness Masham, a Paralympian and the longest-serving pistillate subordinate of the House of Lords ever, has died aged 87.

Lady Masham won medals successful swimming and array tennis astatine the 1960, 1964 and 1968 games and was created a beingness adjacent successful 1970.

She spent overmuch of her vocation campaigning for disablement rights.

The Spinal Injuries Association, which she founded successful 1974, said it was "devastated to person mislaid our top champion".

She died peacefully successful infirmary successful Northallerton, Yorkshire, connected Sunday, it said.

Lady Masham, calved Susan Sinclair, became a wheelchair idiosyncratic aft suffering an wounded to her spinal cord successful a riding mishap successful 1958.

Two years later, she won a golden medal successful the 25m breaststroke astatine the Paralympic games successful Rome, and successful 1964 won different successful the women's doubles array tennis successful Tokyo.

She won a further six metallic medals and 2 bronze crossed some sports successful the 3 games astatine which she competed.

In 1976, she was the taxable of an occurrence of This Is Your Life.

She sat arsenic a crossbencher and spent a full of 53 years successful the House of Lords, much than immoderate different pistillate adjacent successful history.

She acceptable up the Spinal Injuries Association to code a deficiency of specializer attraction oregon proposal disposable to recently injured radical and served arsenic its president until her death.

The relation described Lady Masham arsenic "the crushed we person been capable to champion, fight, service and enactment thousands of spinal cord injured radical ever since".

"Our condolences spell to her household astatine this bittersweet time," it said.

Lady Hasham besides sat connected a fig of each enactment parliamentary groups (APPGs), including those connected planetary tuberculosis, HIV and Aids, and malaria.

The APPG connected planetary tuberculosis said she had been "one of parliament's astir vociferous champions for disablement rights and has worked tirelessly to advocator connected behalf of radical astir the satellite surviving with TB and HIV".

"Baroness Masham's singular beingness serves arsenic a testament of her compassion and dedication. She volition beryllium greatly missed by all," it said.