All at mySociety were deeply saddened to hear of the passing of Helen Darbishire. We have lost a valued partner, a fellow advocate for transparency and a friend.

We were fortunate enough to work alongside Helen for many years in her role as founder and Executive Director of Access Info Europe, in which she both campaigned passionately for the right to information, and oversaw the launch of AskTheEU, an Alaveteli site enabling citizens to submit FOI requests to EU institutions.

Helen was an invaluable contributor to our AlaveteliCon events, always happy to share her deep knowledge and experience around Access to Information, and to argue the case for better, stronger transparency. mySociety team members variously describe her as ‘a force of nature’; adding ‘once met, never forgotten’, and highlighting that despite her passionate dedication to the right to information, she was also ‘never boring — great fun to spend time with socially’.

We all — but especially those within the Alaveteli community — will feel her loss; but her legacy is a strong one, and we have confidence in the AccessInfo team’s ability to uphold it.

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Images: Banner – Helen at AlaveteliCon in Oslo, 2019

Photo – The Alaveteli community in Madrid, where Helen helped us host AlaveteliCon in 2015.