The funeral of Ramsey woman and charity worker Alison Taylor has taken place.

Alison and her husband Steve founded Drop Inn Ministries Isle of Man in 2003, a Christian charity which runs a group of charity shops in Ramsey that raises money for international humanitarian aid causes.

As part of Drop Inn they ran a yearly Christmas shoebox appeal, delivering shoeboxes collected in the island to orphans in Belarus between 1999 and 2006, and later the Ukraine and Latvia.

On average, Alison and Steve, along with another island volunteer, personally delivered 1,000 to 2,000 shoeboxes to orphans a year, undertaking the long journeys all the way from the island in a transit van.

In 2013, Alison travelled to Rwanda as one of a group of 12 women, to assess ways of establishing a clinic for HIV positive orphans.

The Manx charity had previously helped to open a ’Solace Centre’ there where women could come and talk and receive support.

In 2013, Alison spoke of how many of these women were widows and how they had been traumatised by the 1994 genocide in the country.

Between this visit and 2016, Drop Inn IoM contributed a total of £250,000 to fund Hospital Kabuga Rwanda in the capital, Kigali.

During lockdown earlier this year, Alison and Steve would travel around checking up on people and dropping off Alison’s home-baked cakes, scones or brownies.

In addition to her charity work Alison had worked as an auxiliary nurse at Ramsey Cottage Hospital and as a massage therapist at Hospice Isle of Man.

Alison and Steve had two children, Caroline and Amanda.