A CELEBRATION will be held to mark the life of a much-loved Worcestershire woman.

Ann Morgan was born one of seven in Omagh, County Tyrone, Northern Ireland, but lived in Worcestershire for more than 40 years.

The grandmother-of-eight, known as Nanny Ann, died on Monday, April 25, after a year-long battle with cancer. Mrs Morgan moved to Malvern in the 1960s as Ann Hayward where she became a clerk at the town’s magistrates court.

In the 1970s she met future husband Ron Morgan and she moved to Penhill Crescent in St John’s, Worcester, to be with him.

Mrs Morgan took on his sons, Lloyd and Gary, as her own and the couple later married in the mid-1980s.

As well as her family the 70-year-old’s other loves in life were darts and bowls, music and dancing.

She captained the Avengers women’s darts team, which was based at the Three Nuns in Powick, for 28 years and was also the regional Border Counties team captain.

Although born in Northern Ireland, she represented England in a 1977 competition against Wales because of her English ancestry.

The keen sportswoman also played bowls at the Hylton Club, which was most recently Breeez nightclub, and was a member of the Thornebirds skittles team who were based at Willie Thorne’s Snooker Club in Malvern.

In the early 2000s, Mrs Morgan was secretary of the Rainbow Hill Social Club in Worcester.

In addition to her busy social life, she found time to care for several older people whom she and Mr Morgan befriended and would run errands or cook for.

Mrs Morgan was widowed in 2003 and, in 2008, she moved back to County Tyrone to be with her sisters Margaret, Isobel and Dorothy.

It was there she died and her funeral was attended by more than 100 people, many of whom she had made friends with in the past three years.

Her family decided to organise a celebration of the life Mrs Morgan at Coppertops in Oldbury Road on Friday for her friends in Worcestershire.

“She was always the life and soul,” said Lloyd Morgan. “She loved to dance and loved her music.

“I think the celebration will end up being a party and that’s just what she would have wanted.”

Daughter-in-law Teresa Morgan, who is married to Gary, added: “She had a heart of gold but she would tell it to you straight.

“She was larger than life.”

Everyone is welcome to attend the celebration in the restaurant room from 7.30pm.