They each began to realise that they were not the only ones in that situation.
We all had an overwhelming feeling that we must do something.
'We wanted to be part of this fight, but we didn't know quite how to start. Most of the husbands were not very encouraging at first, but they're used to it now.
'None of us knew the others until we turned up separately on the picket lines. We are now accepted as a mainstay of the picket, and we all have other responsibilities which are fitted in.
'Elaine does a 12-hour shift after being on the picket from 6.30 a.m. Some leave their teenage children in bed and then go home to get them off to school. There are others who have younger children or toddlers and they go on the picket later in the day. Sometimes they take their children.
'One of the stewards suggested that we have a meeting, and 16 of us got together at first. Sylvia Pye was there. She has a lot of experience being active in support of the miners, and gave us some guidelines about having a committee and officers and made proposals about the sort of activities we could organise.
'We didn't know each other at that time and so we just asked who would like to do what. We have a committee of ten and now we just fit together - nobody acts on their own.
'We organised a Christmas party for the adults and one for the children.
'We get food parcels for the men who live on their own and they make a donation which helps with our other activities. When the Citizens Advice Bureau had two classes to explain their rights to the dockers and their families we did the lunch.
'Now we speak at meetings in Merseyside and other towns, and we go on demonstrations and rallies. We feel particularly close to the Hillingdon Hospital strikers.
'Some of us are going to take part in the International Women's Day events in Oxford and Mary Pennington and Colette Melia are off to Sweden for four days. Colette is a nurse and she is going right after her night shift!'
In the 1980s Irene took part in a sit-in at British American Tobacco.
The factory has closed down now, but our action did keep 500 jobs for another six years,' she said. 'The company announced closure with the loss of 1,600 jobs. We walked in on night shift and ten of us, three women and seven men, barricaded ourselves in and stayed there for a week.'
