Dame Tessa Jowell: From social worker to 'inspirational' politician
Dame Tessa Jowell, who has died aged 70, will be remembered as one of the main political champions behind the hugely successful 2012 London Olympics.
As Tony Blair's culture secretary in the early noughties, Dame Tessa led the bid to host the Games, despite scepticism from within the cabinet and the civil service.
London won the vote in July 2005 and, although Dame Tessa lost her cabinet post in Gordon Brown's 2007 reshuffle, she remained Olympic minister overseeing every stage of the Games.
The success of the Games was a highlight in a political career that began in 1978 when the former social worker stood in a by-election in Ilford North. She lost to a Conservative rival, and was defeated again in the following year's general election.
She finally made it to Westminster as MP for Dulwich & West Norwood in 1992.
In 1997 Dame Tessa was one of the 101 female Labour MPs in Blair's government following the party's landslide victory.
A loyal supporter of Blair, Dame Tessa was given a succession of ministerial jobs, including employment minister and minister for women, before she joined the cabinet as culture secretary in 2001.
She was instrumental in setting up Sure Start, an initiative aimed at improving childcare, early education, health and family support for children from disadvantaged backgrounds before they started school. She told the Guardian it was an achievement she remained "most proud of" in an interview in 2015.
In 2012 she was made Dame Tessa Jowell in the Birthday Honours for political and charitable services, which were partly in recognition of her work on the Olympics.
Three years later, after stepping down from the Commons at the 2015 general election, she was made Baroness Jowell of Brixton.
She later stood to be Labour's candidate for mayor of London in 2016, losing to Sadiq Khan.
Her life was not without controversy. Her husband, David Mills, was embroiled in a financial scandal after paying off the couple's mortgage with £350,000 at the centre of a bribery case involving former Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi.
Mr Mills was charged along with Mr Berlusconi with corruption in Milan and was convicted in his absence in February 2009, before being acquitted by the Italian Supreme Court under Italy's statute of limitations a year later.
The couple parted after it was said to be damaging Dame Tessa's career, but they were later reconciled.
Dame Tessa was diagnosed with a are type of brain tumour, glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) after suffering two seizures in a taxi as she made her way to a Sure Start talk in east London.
After her diagnosis she campaigned for more cancer treatments to be made available through the NHS.
It included an emotional January 2018 speech in the Lords in which she called for more opportunities for "adaptive trials" in which patients can undergo different treatments, and if one does not work they can immediately move on to the next.
She told peers: "In the end, what gives a life meaning is not only how it is lived, but how it draws to a close.
"I hope this debate will give hope to other cancer patients like me. So that we can live well with cancer, not just be dying of it."
Among those paying tribute from the world of politics and beyond. Blair described her as "the most wise of counsellors, the most loyal and supportive of colleagues, and the best of friends" while prime minister Theresa May described her as "inspirational".