ALL are "welcome to attend" the funeral of Baroness Margaret McDonagh the family of the late political trailblazer have confirmed.
Baroness McDonagh, who was Labour’s first female general secretary, died on June 24, aged 61, following a battle with glioblastoma brain cancer.
Born in London, the daughter of Irish immigrants who hailed from Galway, she would go on to become a driving force in Tony Blair's New Labour movement - and is deemed a key figure in Labour’s landslide election victory in 1997 and many other victories.
Baroness McDonagh, who sat in the House of Lords since receiving a life peerage in 2004, was general secretary of the Labour Party from 1998 to 2001.
She died “at home, surrounded by family and friends’` her sister Siobhain McDonagh, the MP for Mitcham and Morden, said in a statement this week.
She went on to thank those who knew her sister “for all the kindness and support that you will have given Margaret during her life and during the 19 months of her illness, which she wore with her normal stoicism”.
She added: “I have been overwhelmed with the kindness and the wonderful comments made in her memory.”
Margaret and Siobhain McDonagh (Pic: Malcolm McNally Photography)Ms McDonagh has confirmed that her sister’s funeral will take place oat 9.30am on Wednesday, July 19 at St Boniface Church in Tooting, south London, adding that “everyone is welcome to attend”.
Mass will be followed by a burial at Lambeth Cemetery.
Ms McDonagh added that anyone wishing to make a donation in Baroness McDonagh's memory can support her final campaign “to fight for better treatment of the 3,200 people who are diagnosed with glioblastoma each year in the UK”.
“If you would like to make a donation for further drug trials and improvement in treatment in Margaret’s memory, please make a donation using the just giving link,” Ms McDonagh said.
More than £21,000 has already been raised via the fundraising page, with many MPs and celebrity friends of the McDonagh family among those donating.
