Our friend John Shiers, who has died of mesothelioma cancer aged 59, was a gay activist, political campaigner, psychotherapist and advocate for social justice. As a young community worker living in local authority housing in Hulme, Manchester, he was a member of the Hulme Asbestos Action Group, which campaigned about the hazards of asbestos to tenants and housing workers. Exposure to asbestos in Hulme eventually cost him his own life.
Brought up in Tadworth, Surrey, John became an adopted son of Manchester. After university in Lancaster and York, he went to work in the city and stayed for more than 30 years. He played an important role in the local Labour party in the 1980s at a time of intense political struggle, including a stint as chair, commanding personal respect from different internal factions.
From the Gay Liberation Front at Lancaster in the early 1970s to recent support for Ugandans fighting homophobic laws, John was a tenacious campaigner for lesbian and gay equality. He was instrumental in organising the 1988 Section 28 protest in Manchester, attended by 25,000 people (the Local Government Act had banned councils from promoting homosexuality). It was typical of John that he encouraged a Royal Navy sailor whom he met one evening during the 1982 Labour conference (gay people were not permitted to serve in the armed forces at that time) to share the platform the next evening with Tony Benn and Ken Livingstone at a packed fringe meeting of the Labour Campaign for Lesbian and Gay Rights. John was an inspired and creative campaigner.
He was also an original thinker and skilled public service practitioner. As a local authority officer, his commitment to neighbourhood policy was a strong influence in decentralising council services in Manchester and Rochdale in the 1980s. Later, while working for Save the Children, and as a consultant and charity trustee, he had a major impact in shaping services for children and young people in the north-west.
John, a caring and generous man, created many enduring friendships. Like many gay men of his generation, he lost several friends to Aids in the 1980s and 90s, which reinforced his will to make the most of opportunities in his own life.
Turning in the mid-1990s to a branch of psychotherapy known as psychosynthesis, to address bouts of depression, John discovered a new career path, qualified, and built a successful psychotherapy practice in Didsbury. He founded the Synthesise Centre in Didsbury as a northern focus for psychosynthesis and spiritual development. John's travels to India led to his association with his yoga teacher and spiritual guide, and the adoption of his yogic name, Visvamitra, meaning "friend of the world".
He is survived by his partner, Louis.
