Tributes have been paid to an Islington community activist who has passed away at 59 years old.

A memorial and funeral-costs fundraiser dedicated to Sharon Jobe, who lost a short battle with cancer nine on June 8, has raised nearly £6,000.

She was born in the Whittington Hospital and lived in Islington throughout her life, becoming a prominent member of the community by working in multiple groups and organisations.

This includes at the Lumpy Hill Adventure Playground, The Unicorn pub for 15 years, and as secretary at the Goodinge Community Centre in North Road, where she organised social events.

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Sharon was also a key player, together with Jim Veal, in setting up the Market Estate Tenants and Residents’ Association in 2000, which helped to solve long-running antisocial behaviour issues that plagued the area.

Speaking to this newspaper for a feature on the estate in 2018, the mother-of-two said: “It was like Beirut – burnt out cars, kids running riot, intimidation, the council not doing repairs. It was a magnet for kids causing trouble.”

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After a vandalised fire door fell on and killed 12-year-old Chris Pullen, Sharon led the association in a successful campaign to have the estate demolished and rebuilt.

Then-council leader Steve Hitchins told the Gazette in an article at the time: “It is a problem area but this is the right way forward.

We want to get improvements for the people who live here.”

The Market Estate was bulldozed from 2004 and gradually replaced by Parkside Place from 2007.

Sharon went on to become chair of what is now the Clocktower Residents’ Group to the end of her life.

Organiser of the funeral costs fundraiser Caroline Benford said: “(Sharon was) the beating heart of our community, an amazing woman who I’m honoured to have had in my and my kid’s lives.”

Sharon leaves her sister Debbie, niece Sam and nephew Matt, daughter Joanne, son and his partner James and Jessi Hall, and three granddaughters - Summer, Emily and Marina.

James said: “She was caring, everyone that knew her saw her as a mother figure. She would help any person who needed it.”View the fundraiser at www.gofundme.com/f/sharon-jobe-funeral-fund