TRIBUTES have been paid to a brave mum who has lost her five-year struggle with motor neurone disease.

Annie Allen of Poole died last month aged just 55.

The talented graphic designer was diagnosed with bulbar palsy in 2017 but fought the devastating condition to the end with determination and her remarkable and irrepressible humour.

Shortly before she passed away, she had to visit Poole Hospital for urgent treatment.

But after spending hours there in her wheelchair on a particularly hot day, she sent friends a picture of herself with the message: “What a way to spend a Sunday, but at least I got an ice cream and a sun hat!”

Bournemouth Echo:

Anne Towler was born in Poole Hospital and grew up in Langside Avenue, Poole.

She went to Talbot Combined School and became a competitive swimmer with the Bournemouth Dolphins swimming squad, winning several gold medals.

Anne learned the recorder at a very young age, the piano and later took up the cornet and joined the school band, switching to tenor horn at 14.

She played Mozart’s Horn Concerto as a solo on band tours of Austria and Switzerland and joined Poole Borough Band at 15.

Bournemouth Echo: Annie Allen, Sam Sutton, Jane Magowan

Anne joined the family business, advertising and design agency Creative Studios at 16, working with her brothers Cliff and Graham.

Future husband Neil Allen joined the firm soon afterwards as a studio junior and they were married in 1988. He started calling her Annie and the name change stuck.

At Creative she worked on many design projects mainly creating all the holiday magazines, brochures and in-flight magazines for Bath Travel and Palmair. Former managing director Stephen Bath said: “Annie was brilliantly creative, our design inspiration.”

After being diagnosed with MND, Annie bravely spoke to the Echo to raise awareness of the disease and to help with fundraising. Her funeral takes place at the Woodland Burial Ground at Lytchett on Friday. She is survived by Neil and son Samuel, 17.

Bournemouth Echo: Annie Allen

Julie Reid, chair of East Dorset and New Forest Motor Neurone Disease Association Branch said Annie was their amazing‘poster girl’.

“She continued to push for MND to be at the forefront of the local media and was one of the first pioneers to bank her voice and use voice banking technology to communicate subsequently using eye gaze technology. She was always using humour and making us laugh.”

“That was something so many said about Annie, they would laugh till they cried and not always knowing why.”

See mndassociation.org or email EDNFMNDASecretary@gmail.com