A TIRELESS campaigner for disabled rights has died aged just 26.
Only this Valentine’s Day Hayley Parsonage got engaged to fiancé Stephen Murphy in Jersey and had been looking forward to planning a dream wedding.
But on March 29 she died in her sleep in hospital.
Hayley, previously of Bridge Meadow, Ellesmere Port, was born with a congenital condition called sacral agenesis, which affected her height and caused a loss of sensation below the knees of both legs.
The former Sutton High pupil studied criminology at West Cheshire College and later worked there as an assistant.
She had previously co-ordinated educational visits at Tatton Park.
Last year Hayley moved to Sheffield, where she worked as a customer relations adviser for Santander Group.
In 2006 the Pioneer reported her struggle to get funding to have a car adapted to enable her to pass her driving test.
She was initially refused after failing to meet the funding requirements of a mobility charity.
But in typically determined style, she persevered. Other charities and companies stepped in to pay the £6,000 needed and two years later she passed her test.
Nicola Waterworth, who worked closely with Hayley in the customer services team at West Cheshire College, said: “Hayley was such an inspirational young lady with what she had overcome and achieved in her life. Most of all she was a good friend and colleague, not only to me but to everyone she was in contact with.
“I know that the world is definitely not a better place without her in it.
“Hayley had the loudest, most infectious laugh that would just make me start laughing even if I didn’t know what it was over, she is a person who will greatly missed.”
Hayley leaves behind fiancé Stephen, mother and father Ann and Ray Parsonage and brother Daniel.
