Tributes are paid to ex-Gazette deputy

Mr McLean, who was 45, and lived in Old Railway Close, Malmesbury, died in Malmesbury Community Hospital last Wednesday night, surrounded by his family. He leaves a widow, Nicola, and son Patrick, nine.

He was the deputy editor of the Gazette between 1987 and 1994.

Mrs McLean met her husband on a course while she was working at the Bath Chronicle as an investments manager, and he was working at the Gazette.

"He loved the Gazette and always took an interest in the paper," she said.

His funeral takes place at Westerleigh Crematorium at 12.30pm today, and the family has requested any donations in lieu of flowers be made to Cancer Research UK.

Mr McLean, the assistant editor of the Evening Post in Bristol, had been diagnosed with cancer on April 26.

Doctors first found the disease in his colon but later discovered it had spread to his liver. He was due to start a course of chemotherapy but doctors said he was too ill.

On Sunday his condition worsened and the following day he was admitted to Malmesbury Hospital.

On the same day a fundraising golf tournament arranged by colleagues Chris Bartlett and Mike Stafford, at The Bristol Evening Post, to raise money for him took place at The Bristol Golf Club. Almost 100 people took part and raised more than £8,000.

Roger Burton, the Evening Post's crown court reporter, said newspaper staff had hoped to raise enough money to get Steve specialist treatment.

"As far as I'm concerned you couldn't meet a nicer man, and I'm not ashamed to say that when I heard he had gone, I shed a few tears," said Mr Burton, who had worked with Steve since he joined the paper.

Writing in the Evening Post shortly after he was diagnosed, Steve said: "I may only have a 50 per cent chance of seeing out the next year. It's an old man's disease, one I shouldn't have got, if I was going to get it, until maybe I was 70.

"But I have an amazing wife, a son who is my world and I'm only 45. How fair is that?"

Mr McLean adored his son, who he called called Paddy, and used to ring every morning before school.

He spoke publicly about his plight because at the time health authorities in Bath were refusing to pay for vital drugs he needed. The authorities later agreed to pay for his treatment.

In May he flew to the United States to see a consultant in New York who was specialising in new methods of treatment.

Mr McLean was born in Liverpool and spent all his working life in newspapers, starting in 1976 on the Lincolnshire and South Humberside Times as a trainee reporter. He went on to work as a reporter on newspapers in Yorkshire and on Merseyside and for the Sheffield Star and the Evening News, Edinburgh.

Mr McLean became deputy editor of the Gazette in 1987. He was then appointed editor of the Chorley Guardian series in 1994, where he won the Newspaper Society Campaigning Newspaper of the Year Award. A year later he became editor of the Gazette series of papers in Dursley.

From there he joined the Evening Post in 1996, initially as deputy chief sub editor. Twelve months later he was appointed chief sub editor and in November last year he was promoted to assistant editor.

Steve was a lifelong Liverpool FC fan and when Radio Bristol's Geoff Twentyman heard of his illness, he contacted the club, which sent a shirt signed by the first team squad.

The Post had that shirt framed and it was at the foot of Steve's bed when he died.

Gazette editor Gary Lawrence said: "When I joined the Gazette in 1994 it was as Steve's replacement. He was one of the first people I met in Wiltshire and was incredibly helpful and supportive.

"Over the years he moved away and then came back to Wiltshire and was always on the phone when he thought there might be a story we would be interested in.

"He will be remembered here as a talented journalist with very high standards. Much of what the paper has achieved can be traced back to his time here and the standards he set.

"Our thoughts go out to Nicola and the family.''