The Eden area lost a woman known for her love of life, determination and strong personality with the death of Anna Granger, from Stainton, aged 56.
Anna died following a long battle against cancer, fought with great dignity, which also saw her raise thousands of pounds for good causes and help increase awareness of the condition from which she was suffering.
Born at Willington Quay, Wallsend, Anna grew up alongside her brother Quentin and stepbrothers Steven and Mally. Living in Whitley Bay, she would spend weekends at Stannington where she had a great time riding horses over obstacles around a small course set up in a local field.
After starting high school in North Shields Anna discovered a love of running and competing in hurdles races. She proved to be a very good athlete and held records at both Newcastle and county levels.
At the age of 14 she found herself running alongside older members of her club, some of them up to 18 years old, and even travelled up to Edinburgh for racing events. She competed in a number of youth competitions, gaining medals and trophies.
However, at around the age of 16 Anna’s rebellious side started to show itself and she went to live in London. She remaining there for about five years and then moved back to the North East, where she met her future husband Stuart in a bar in Whitley Bay.
The couple spent time on the Caribbean island of Antigua before getting married back in the UK, after which they returned to Antigua. They especially enjoyed going out on friends’ yachts, sailing around different bays.
Moving back to the North East in the early 1990s, Anna became a proud mum to her eldest son Rob. Unfortunately, she and Stuart separated and divorced.
She then moved to Penruddock with her partner Mark, who she subsequently married. Her second son was Seth. Anna always did her best for her sons and also her adoptive sons Josh, Holmsey, Grundy and Dan, with all five growing up together.
Always a hard worker despite her rebellious streak, she got a job as an area manager with Avon and went on to build up a large base of clients.
Promoted to divisional manager, she worked in Northern Ireland for a couple of years. The opportunity then came up for her to become self-employed with Avon and over the following 18 months she built up a turnover of almost £2 million.
Unfortunately, this had massive tax implications, so Anna left Avon and started travelling to festivals around the country, doing what she wanted.
After a while Anna got bored with this and considered looking after racehorses at a local stables, but a conversation at Greystoke’s Boot and Shoe pub — which she took as a challenge — instead prompted her to start looking for a burger van to run.
As a result, along came her Mad Anna’s van, located near Penrith’s Kemplay roundabout, which very quickly gained a fantastic reputation with drivers travelling along the A66 and on the M6.
She ran regular competitions for her customers, like setting up a small putting green and challenging them to get a hole in one in order to get their food for nothing. The small sum she charged for this would go to charity.
She ran Mad Anna’s for about 18 months before her wanderlust returned. She sold her house and business and bought a large motorhome with the intention of travelling around Spain and Portugal in the winter and coming back in the spring to help out with lambing on local farms.
Unfortunately the pandemic put a stop to this, so she spent most of her time helping out on Eden farms.
She had already travelled to Spain in her smaller campervan, called Ruby, along with her two dogs Daisy and Milly. She also travelled extensively around the UK visiting places like the Gower Peninsula, Exeter and Felixstowe as well as many music festivals.
At home, Anna was a regular at the Boot and Shoe on Sunday afternoons when bands would play for two or three hours and she contributed to many wonderful music sessions.
Wherever she went she lit up the room with the force of her personality and love for life, invariably causing all present to smile. Even during the last 18 months of her life, she never stopped dancing.
The funeral service was due to be held at Eden Valley Crematorium on Friday, December 9. Richardsons Funeral Directors, Penrith, had charge of the arrangements.
