Peter Broadhurst

His intellectual capacity was underrated when at school and it was only discovered and encouraged by his community after he joined the Servite Friars in 1970.

He undertook training at the Westminster Pastoral Foundation in both individual and group counselling.

He then trained and worked as a psychiatric nurse in Oxford, bringing insight and innovation to the care of the mentally ill.

Broadhurst was involved in the formation programme of his Servite Order, working as assistant novice master and then student master.

Coming to Glasgow in 1982 as superior of the Servite Friars and master of students, he lived and worked in Scotland - a place he came to love deeply - for almost all of the rest of his life. Besides his work for his community, Broadhurst was a psychological counsellor and gave workshops at the Garnethill Centre in Glasgow at its beginnings and saw the establishment go from strength to strength.

At this time he also began to lead a Christian meditation group, giving talks and retreats and in 1990 he spent one short year at the London Christian Meditation Centre as a member of staff, but returned to Scotland to establish a Christian Meditation Centre in Glasgow. The running of this centre and living a contemplative lifestyle became his principal occupation at this time.

As the Servite house in Glasgow had closed, he had the use of a house in the grounds of the Carmelite monastery where he prayed, lived and worked while remaining a member of his own order. He joined the sisters for mass and prayer while being of service to the lay Christian meditation groups throughout Scotland and beyond.

Broadhurst was particularly gifted for this ministry and that of individual spiritual counselling because of his unique blend of psychological knowledge and skills, self knowledge, and spiritual insight. Many were the lives he touched and changed with his wisdom, insight and caring attitude. In 1998, as the Carmelite sisters were looking to the possible closure of their monastery, he moved to Tayport in Fife and continued his work from there. He also became an active member of the parish of Our Lady Star of the Sea.

In 2004 he was diagnosed with mesothelioma, an asbestos-related disease. It was at Ninewells Hospital in Dundee that he was first diagnosed and received treatment, and at the behest of his oncologist he gave talks to the medical students there about death and dying, and became involved in the work of the Tayside Cancer Network.

As a result of being diagnosed with mesothelioma, Broadhurst became profoundly aware of the plight of his fellow mesothelioma sufferers. Seeing power being used against people rather than for them, he campaigned on their behalf against the Canadian export of asbestos, the poor level of research into mesothelioma and adequate compensation for its victims. As always, his spirituality was grounded in caring for the weak and powerless.

Never over-pious, Broadhurst had a wicked sense of humour and enjoyed the company of his many friends.

During his last illness, he kept up with as many of them as possible by e-mail, sharing the journey he now had to take and the lessons he was learning from it, writing no fewer than 24 circulars. He died peacefully at Ninewells Hospital.

The funeral mass was held at St Vincent's, his Servite community parish in Dundee yesterday, where his many friends, colleagues and the people whose lives he touched and healed could celebrate a life given in love and service right to the end. He had one sister, Marie, now a retired teacher.