Domestic violence campaigner Lesley Elliott has died.

Elliott had been a vocal advocate for abuse awareness since her daughter Sophie Elliot, then a 22-year-old student, was stabbed to death by her former boyfriend in 2008.

Following her beloved daughter Sophie’s death, Lesley set up the Sophie Elliott Foundation and she and Bill O’Brien toured New Zealand talking to young people about how to foster healthy relationships with their ‘Loves-Me-Not’ programme.

Lesley had also been a long-time nurse and Lactation Consultant in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at Dunedin Hospital.

In 2011 she was awarded the NEXT Woman of the Year Award amongst other awards, and in 2015 the New Zealand Order of Merit.

In recent years Lesley developed Parkinson’s Disease along with dementia.

Lesley was aged 76.