The one thing that Jean Denton, who died on February 5th aged 65, wanted to achieve in the course of a life that was packed with incident, action and achievement, was a feeling that she had made a difference. She wanted to make the world a better place. It was the motivation that drove her as a businesswoman, that propelled her into politics and sustained her tireless pursuit of a multitude of worthy causes.
But she was also wonderfully reckless, spending three years as a professional racing driver, twice becoming the British Women Racing Drivers' champion.
It might have been expected that she would find the pace of life in boardrooms and the House of Lords somewhat dull by comparison, but nothing ever bored her. She exuded energy, instilling a sense of fun and excitement into whatever mission she embarked upon.
Her first brush with cancer in 1989 did nothing to diminish her enthusiasm, merely alerting her to the irritating possibility of a shortage of time in hand. She asked her doctors at the time to tell her if she was not going to recover, so that she might swap her old Granada for a Porsche.
When she recovered from the operation to remove a malignant brain tumour, it was a matter of months before she was back on the opposition front bench in the upper house as trade and industry spokeswoman, proclaiming her determination not to waste whatever time she had been given.
Baroness Denton of Wakefield was nominated for the House of Lords by John Major in 1991, and immediately joined the government as a whip. The following year she was appointed junior minister at the Department of Trade and Industry, and she moved from there to the Department of Employment.
In 1994, she became a Northern Ireland minister, initially looking after health and agriculture but soon with a wider economic brief. Following her appointment she started a campaign to market Ireland as a single tourist entity and she later proposed a radical shakeup of the ambulance service.
Lady Denton travelled widely to persuade investors not to overlook Belfast's potential, and served as economic minister at the inter-governmental conference on Ulster held in Washington in 1995.
During her final months in the North her office was at the centre of a fair employment row. A Catholic woman, who had received damages for sectarian harassment against an aide of the minister, was moved from her job while the aide stayed as Lady Denton's private secretary. The minister was cleared of discrimination. However, an independent review found there had been "insensitivity in the handling of staff and poor personal relationships" at the Department of Agriculture.
Jean Moss was born in Yorkshire, the daughter of Charles and Kathleen Moss, and never lost the tough, forthright, go-getting attributes of her native county.
She was educated at Rothwell Grammar School and the London School of Economics, and in 1958 married the pioneering marine engineer Dr Anthony Denton. They were divorced in 1974.
She worked in business before her spell as a racing and rally driver from 1969 to 1972, and then worked in the motor industry. She was marketing director of the Huxford Group for six years, worked with the Heron Group for another seven, and then became external affairs director of Austin Rover.
She was the deputy chairwoman of the Black Country Development Corporation until she went into the House of Lords.
At the same time, when not in government, she served on numerous other boards and public bodies, including the Teachers' Pay Review Board and the National Health Service Policy Board. She was on the board of the Royal Academy, a member of the Council of the Royal Society of Arts, and a governor of the LSE.
Lady Denton was a first-class fixer. She knew people in all areas and was a great networker. She also believed very strongly in working with other women - she used to talk about the strength of what she called the "women's mafia", and she would never hesitate to use her contacts and influence, if she could do so, to help further a cause. She was cheerful, cheery and optimistic, infuriated by her illness and frustrated by anything which diminished her ability to attack life with the force and vigour she had once so enjoyed.
Jean Denton (Lady Denton of Wakefield): born 1935; died, February 2001