A community leader who made a significant contribution to education, politics and minorities issues has died at the age of 45.

Jacky Harding was a former Brighton and Hove City Councillor, a founder member of the Learning and Skills Council Sussex and a governor at Plumpton College and BHASVIC.

She worked for the University of Brighton and was heavily involved in Aim Higher, increasing access to higher education.

Mrs Harding was also a member of the management committee of the Friends Centre in Ship Street, Brighton.

She is the only black or ethnic minority woman to have been a Brighton and Hove City Councillor.

Mrs Harding, of Islingword Street, Brighton, represented Hanover ward from 2000 to 2003.

She became lead councillor for lifelong learning and helped pioneer the idea that education should be available for every age group.

She stepped down to help found the Learning and Skills Council Sussex.

Labour Party colleague Joyce Edmond-Smith said her death was "a tragic loss to the city and especially to our local community.

She was committed and hard-working and has given us an awful lot."

Councillor Pat Hawkes, chairwoman of the children, families and schools committee, said Mrs Harding was "very talented" at pioneering lifelong learning.

David Lepper, MP for Brighton Pavilion, said Mrs Harding helped with his 1997 and 2001 election campaigns.

He and his wife Jeane attended Mrs Harding's wedding to Alan Hughes in the late Nineties.

Mr Lepper said: "She was full of enthusiasm, which made her a very popular person in the Hanover area."

Mrs Harding moved to Britain from Sierra Leone aged eight and in 1980 came to study economics at Sussex University, when she joined the Labour Party.

She died suddenly of liver failure on Sunday, December 3.

A requiem mass will be held at The Church of the Annunciation in Washington Street, Brighton, on Saturday at 9.30am. It will be followed by interment at Bear Road Cemetery.

There will be a wake at St Martin's Church, Lewes Road, from noon.

Flowers or donations made payable to Oxfam or Medecins Sans Frontieres can be sent to Christopher Stringer Funeral Services, 67 High Street, Rottingdean BN2 7HE.