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My mother, June Diamond, who has died aged 76, was a teacher in secondary, adult and higher education in Yorkshire, including as deputy director of a pioneering adult education centre in Leeds, The Basement, which provided counselling and practical support for long-term unemployed people. Latterly she was a lecturer in education at Leeds University.

Born in Leicester, she was the daughter of Jean (nee Donaldson) and Francis Hurst, the managing director of his family’s textiles business. After attending Leicester girls’ grammar school she gained an English literature and American studies degree from the University of East Anglia, then did teacher training in York.

She began teaching English at a secondary school in Sutton, south London, where she met a fellow teacher, Neil Diamond, whom she married in 1974; they had three children, James, Isobel and me. When the family moved to Leeds in 1980, she continued teaching, switching into adult education as a tutor at colleges across Leeds and West Yorkshire in the mid-1980s.

She subsequently trained as a counsellor, and from 1987 was deputy director of The Basement, providing drop in services, advice on accessing education, training and social services, job searches and emotional support to unemployed people.

In 1992 she moved to become a lecturer at Park Lane Further Education College in Leeds, and was active there in the Natfhe trade union.

In 1990, while still at The Basement, June had begun part-time postgraduate study, writing a research dissertation examining the growing influence of feminist critical theory. She spent the final phase of her career in the 2000s as a teacher training and counselling skills lecturer at Leeds University, before retiring in 2016.

She was valued by colleagues and students as non-judgmental, open-minded and a wonderful listener. A longtime Labour party member, she was an enthusiastic campaigner during elections.

June spent the early years of her retirement volunteering for a mediation service in Bradford, Community Accord, and became chair of the West Yorkshire branch of the Victorian Society. With fellow members, June led historical walking tours of the suburbs of Leeds and Bradford, researching local buildings and the lives of their residents. She adored Headingley in Leeds, where she lived for nearly 50 years.

In her later years June travelled across South America and much of Europe. She also nurtured her love of opera and the arts, while singing in a local choir.

Her marriage ended in divorce in the late 80s. She is survived by her children and two grandchildren, Jacob and Joseph.