CELIA LASHLIE: "Her sudden departure was unexpected but her passing was peaceful," her family said.

Author and social commentator Celia Lashlie has died after a short battle with cancer.

Her family confirmed this morning that she died last night at 11.40pm in Wellington. She was 61.

"Her sudden departure was unexpected but her passing was peaceful," the family said.

The family had released a statement yesterday saying Lashlie was hospitalised after Christmas and a scan revealed pancreatic cancer.

Her condition had deteriorated significantly in the last six weeks, they said.

Lashlie said in a statement on her website yesterday that she slowly became unwell last year but waited too long to get herself checked out.

"The stress of the lifestyle I was living, the demands I made of myself, the demands other people made of me and expected to meet, became too great and as 2014 closed I was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer that had spread to my liver," she wrote.

"No treatment, no cure, only palliative care.

"I'd waited too long to look after myself and my body broke."

Lashlie started her career in social work within the prison service in 1985, becoming the first woman to work as an officer in a New Zealand male prison.

Her final role within Corrections was as manager of Christchurch Women's Prison, a position she left in September 1999.

She was a Nelson manager for Specialist Education Services and was controversially sacked in 2001 for speaking out about a 5-year-old destined for prison, but was later vindicated after a government inquiry.

She then worked for a number of Nelson schools, including Nelson College, where she developed the Good Man project working with male students.

Her work with teenage boys had been extensive and her talks on raising teenage boys, as well as on social justice issues, had meant an extensive speaking circuit in New Zealand, Australia, South Africa and the United States, her family said.

She wrote the book He'll be Okay: Growing Gorgeous Boys Into Good Men, based on her work in 2004 on the Good Man project.

That project focused on her research from discussions with pupils in 25 boys' schools throughout the country.

At the time of her diagnosis, Lashlie was about to begin writing an updated edition of the book to celebrate its 10th anniversary.

She has also written two other books: The Journey to Prison: Who Goes and Why, and The Power of Mothers: Releasing Our Children.

She was the mother of two adult children and 'Nana' to five grandchildren.

'CELIA'S ARMY' MARCHES ON

Her family has asked for privacy but her daughter, Beks, has set up a Givealittle page on behalf of her friends and family who will continue Lashlie's work, in accordance with Lashlie's last wishes.

"This is a special page set up to honour the work of Celia Lashlie and to give people the opportunity to support the projects close to Celia's heart," the page description said.

"The idea is that we can progress some of the work Celia intended to do, before she was diagnosed with the horrible disease that is pancreatic cancer.

"A group of people from Celia's 'army' had met in December 2014 to talk strategy and next steps.

"It is absolutely heartbreaking that Celia will not see that work come to fruition."

Lashlie was a strong supporter of Big Buddy, a mentoring organisation started in 1997 to match men with fatherless boys.

Big Buddy chief executive Richard Aston said Lashlie's loss would be sorely felt throughout New Zealand.

"Celia was a fantastically authentic woman with a fierce intelligence, a big heart and a great storyteller.

"She could lower her head and look at you with eyes that could melt icebergs and just as quickly roll her head back laughing. Funny and serious, she could laugh at herself."

Her work with teenage boys was liberating for mothers, Aston said.

"It relieved them from their fears that their boys wouldn't be okay and let them get on with having fun with them.

"Her advice to mothers to 'get off the bridge' and allow boys to grow up through experiencing risk was radical but right – someone needed to say it and that someone was Celia Lashlie."

Lashlie's friend, journalist Amanda Millar, said her family and close friends had no idea she was about to die, even when they released a statement on her behalf yesterday.

"We had no idea this was going to happen, we thought there was going to be more time.

"We had thought it would be at least 12 months," Millar said.

"We are relieved the pain that Celia was enduring as this illness ravaged her has now passed."

MIllar was working with Lashlie on some of her upcoming projects, aimed at helping women and children living in poverty.

She would continue to work with a small group of Lashlie's closest friends and family, who have affectionately named themselves "Celia's Army", to ensure Lashlie's legacy continued to be felt in the future.