My friend Ruth Bashall, who has died unexpectedly aged 71, was a feminist, an anti-racist and a disability rights activist.
Whether chucking paving stones in the 1968 Paris student protests, chaining herself to an inaccessible London bus, or battling a local authority to force them to protect an at-risk disabled woman, she displayed the commitment to justice and human rights that shaped her life. She fought to defend those at risk of deportation, and women and children under threat from male violence.
