Sadness at the loss of Teesside's steel campaigner

Geoff Waterfield was chairman of the multi-union works committee and led the campaign to keep steel production going after Corus announced it was no longer viable to keep the furnaces burning.

It was to be a long campaign. When a consortium pulled out of a contract back in 2009 the prospect of finding a buyer willing to take on Teesside Cast Products seemed a daunting one.

Even when Corus' parent company Tata Steel announced it would mothball the plant the belief that this was not yet the end remained undimmed.

We may never know the full details of the hours of talks, phone calls, emails, and calling on favours that go on behind the scenes.

The company's public communiqués that emerged during the months of negotiations only hint at the work put in by the unions' task force to extend the life of the plant and help find a buyer.

But it worked. When it was announced steel-making on Teesside had indeed been saved, the relief was plain to see in the press conference given by Geoff.

Tributes have already started coming in for a man who had steel-making in his blood. His father and grandfather worked in the industry and he had spent 22 years of his own short life following in their footsteps.

"When I see a blast furnace, I see a thing of beauty" - Geoff Waterfield

There will be sadness on Teesside for his passing, sadness also that he would not live to see the day he had fought so hard for.

Steel production is due to start again this coming December. When the date was announced he was quoted as saying: "When I see the first iron come out and the first slab cast that will be the time I can take a big breath at a job done. I have got to see it, know it is there, then I will really believe we have achieved it."