The family of Olive Stevens, who was knocked down and killed by her own car in Orpington on Thursday, have paid tribute to her memory.

Mrs Stevens, 88, was knocked over by a man, who was helping her to reverse her silver Nissan Micra along Skeet Hill Lane at around 8.30am.

She had been driving along the lane to the hairdressers and had to stop her car due to a lorry blocking the road clearing a pile of fly-tipped rubbish.

Paramedics rushed Mrs Stevens, of Allard Close, to King’s College Hospital but she later died from a serious head injury.

Mrs Stevens was the mother of British TV star and comedian Michael Fenton Stevens.

News Shopper:

Michael Fenton Stevens pictured with his mother Olive Stevens

He has more than 85 TV and film acting credits including Coronation Street, My Family and Only Fools and Horses.

He was also the voice of hit The Chicken Song from the 1980s programme Spitting Image. 

Mr Stevens, of Camden Road in Tunbridge Wells, said his family blamed irresponsible fly-tippers for her death.

The 56-year-old told News Shopper: “It’s a terrible accident. The whole thing stems from the carelessness and greed of the fly-tippers.

“Clearly they do it because they are making money out of it but the consequence of them earning their 150 quid is that my mother is dead.

“Without that initial action on their behalf, my mother would still be alive. None of this would have happened.”

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Mr Stevens described how his mother had dedicated her whole life to helping other people.

He said: “She was a very remarkable woman. She was sprightly and she did so much for the community.

“She didn’t want to grow old and infirm. She enjoyed that she was still as agile as she was. It was down to determination and grit. She was active all her life.”

During the Second World War, Mrs Stevens worked as a Land Girl, helping to grow food on farms due to a shortage of labourers.

While men fought on the frontline, Women’s Land Army recruits, like Mrs Stevens, worked tirelessly ploughing fields and harvesting crops.

Following the war, Mrs Stevens, who grew up in Bermondsey, married her husband Harry in 1952 and had three sons.

Once she had raised her children, she qualified as a nurse in her 40s and worked at hospitals in Bromley and Orpington.

Mrs Stevens also worked as a Marie Curie nurse caring for terminally ill cancer patients, after retiring from the NHS.

News Shopper:

Olive Stevens enjoying her granddaughter's wedding

Following her husband’s death, she became the full-time carer of one of her neighbours, who she looked after for the last decade.

Mrs Stevens was also a stalwart of Our Lady of the Crays Church in St Mary Cray and spent hours of her time there.

Her son, Mr Stevens added: “Just the other day, she was telling me that she’d taken her neighbour to the doctors and she’d had the wheelchair in and out of the car six times. She was 88.

“She had more years in her, years that she would have undoubtedly spent helping other people.”

Police arrested the 55-year-old Croydon man, who knocked down Mrs Stevens, at the scene on suspicion of causing serious injury through dangerous driving.

He has been bailed to a date in mid February next year pending further inquiries.

Mrs Steven’s funeral will be held at Our Lady of the Crays Church in St Mary Cray on Tuesday November 18 at 1.15pm.