Heather Meakin was born 30 March 1935 in Birkenhead. She was evacuated with her sister Janet at the beginning of the Second World War to the relative safety of the Snowdonia foothills.
After the war her parents moved to Kendal. After leaving school, Heather started work at The Provincial Insurance on Stramongate. Bored with being a teenager she attended an open day at Brathay Hall to try out some sports. It was here she fell in love with white water slalom canoeing.
She met Eric Tottie and Lesley Beecham and in 1952 they set up the Lakeland Canoe Club at Fellfoot at Newby Bridge.
Through the late 1950s and into the 1960s Heather competed nationally competing in her first canoe competitions in 1953 quickly moving up the results table to secure a fourth position in her second entry that was competed on equal terms with the men.
It was here that she met her future husband Bill Goodman, of the Manchester Canoe Club. Bill was also a prominent national competitor and represented Great Britain at the first World Canoe Championships held in Geneva in 1949. They set up home in Warwickshire and started a family.
Heather competed internationally, travelling to such places as Czechoslovakia and East Germany. Nationally, Heather became British Canoe Champion winning the title ten times. Internationally it was challenging for British competitors to compete against better funded countries; but in 1970 Heather gained a bronze medal in the World Championships in East Germany.
This culminated in her selection for the British team at the 1972 Olympics in Munich, the first time white water slalom canoeing appeared at the Olympics. Heather did very well against the better funded countries but a poor performance on the day left her trailing in the final positions, this disappointed her.
After the Olympics Heather retired from competition and started sailing for leisure. Bill and Heather built their own yacht in their back garden in Warwickshire, probably about as far from the sea as you could get. In order to benefit from the yacht they moved to North Devon where they explored the Bristol Channel and ended up in the Western Isles of Scotland. Heather became a proficient navigator and a dab hand with the sextant.
In 1992, they moved to Kendal to be nearer to Heather’s family replacing the boat with a camper van to better explore Scotland. Heather started running with Kendal Amateur Athletics Club. Competing in cross country and road races, notching up a finishing time in the 2003 National Veterans’ 10-Mile Road Championship that placed her second in the national rankings, Heather entered the London Marathon four times. This culminated in 2005 in a gold medal for the over-60s at the remarkable age of 70 at the International Mountain Runners World Championship in Grasmere.
Recently Heather’s health has deteriorated but she was still able to walk across town to visit family, she will always be remembered for her engaging conversation, dogged determination and her indomitable Olympic spirit. Heather died surrounded by friends and family and will be buried with her father Vincent and her sister Janet.
The funeral will be held at the Chapel, Parkside Road Cemetery, Kendal at 11.30am on October 21.
