My mother, Frances Alexander, who has died aged 84, was a Liberal Democrat councillor and mayor of High Wycombe. She also founded the friendship and travel organisation Women Welcome Women Worldwide and the Wycombe Environment Centre. The story of her life was making things happen. Having nursed her father on his deathbed, who had suffered all his life from the consequences of being gassed in the first world war, Frances believed passionately in a peaceful, united Europe. In 1984 she started Women Welcome Women as a European project to promote continental friendship. Soon women from around the world were joining, and there are now thousands of members holding gatherings around the world, gaining in confidence through travel and feeling part of a global family. Born in Hornchurch, which was then in Essex, to Arthur Pelling, a local pharmacist, and his wife, Winifred (nee Senner), Frances went to Brentwood county high school for girls. In 1953 she began her nursing training at the Royal London hospital, in Whitechapel, east London. In 1957 she moved to Oxford, to practise midwifery. After doing her teacher training in London, Frances married Eric Alexander, a writer and composer, in 1963. They moved to Newcastle, where Frances began teaching, but after having her children, in 1965 she set up a nursing agency, the Northern Nursing Service. While listening to the debate on the 1967 abortion bill in the House of Commons, Frances heard only men’s voices. No one was telling the stories of the botched abortions that she had seen the results of as a nurse and she knew that parliament needed more women. She joined the Liberal party and stood for parliament three times between 1974 and 1979. She was a founding member in 1980 of the 300 Group for equal numbers of female MPs. The family had moved to Wycombe in 1970, after which Frances taught first aid, health education and childcare at a local secondary school, Wellesbourne, and went on to be a careers adviser. In 1991, she was elected to Wycombe district council, going on to become chairman of the council (1997-98) and mayor of High Wycombe (1998-99). Her achievements on the council included pedestrianisation of the high street, protecting a local nature reserve and setting up a charity that gives furniture to recently homed families. As mayor she promoted the environment by creating gardens and planting trees. She commissioned a series of stone plaques to mark the ancient boundary of the town and restarted the annual ritual of beating the town bounds. Frances visited each school, talked about local history and gave them flags of the town, the UK and the EU to help children understand their immediate and wider environment. In 1998, Frances started Wycombe Environment Centre in a disused cafe in a local park, hosting exhibitions and activities. She continued to lead the centre into her 80s, when she was also still active in local politics and could often be seen on the streets on her mobility scooter, campaigning to stay in the EU. Frances was an inspirational person who touched many lives. She achieved recognition in her last decade when she became a charter trustee of High Wycombe, received an honorary doctorate from Buckinghamshire New University, and was voted a local legend by members of the public, with an eco-friendly bus named after her. Eric died in 2016. Frances is survived by her two children, Phil and me, and by her four grandchildren, Nonie, Richard, Edmund and Cecilia.