Mental health worker Deborah Bone who inspired Pulp’s Disco 2000 dies

A pioneering mental health worker who inspired Pulp’s hit single Disco 2000 and was awarded an MBE in the New Year honours list has died aged 51.

Deborah Bone had been diagnosed with multiple myeloma, a type of bone marrow cancer, and died on 30 December – hours after receiving an honour for her services to children and young people.

Bone, who lived in Letchworth in Hertfordshire, with her husband and two daughters, developed ways to help young people cope with high stress and anxiety, including a visual resource dubbed Brainbox and the award-winning Bright Stars programme used in primary schools across her home county.

Born in Sheffield, Bone’s mother is close friends with the mother of Pulp frontman Jarvis Cocker – an association that led to her being named inDisco 2000 in the lyric: “Well we were born within one hour of each other. Our mothers said we could be sister and brother. Your name is Deborah. Deborah. It never suited ya.”