Herald website journalist loses cancer battle, aged 44

A BLOGGER on The Herald website and the content editor on sister website, S1, has died of cancer, aged 44.

Graeme Smith had been on compassionate leave for the last two months when his cancer was deemed terminal. As content editor on S1, he was responsible for 107 community websites.

He was diagnosed in December two years ago as suffering from a glioblastoma, a form of brain tumour. As part of his fight against the condition, he started a personal blog, Pure GNS. He is quoted on his Herald blog, as saying: “No-one seems to be funny about cancer any more. I’m just putting the ‘umour back into tumour.”

He is a former chief reporter at the Falkirk Herald.

Says heraldscotland.com today: “In his final months, Graeme raised more than £4,000 for the Beatson West of Scotland Cancer Centre. Donations to his Just Giving fundraising page can be made here.”

There will be an obituary in The Herald tomorrow.

In a memo, Mark Smith, managing director of S1, said: “It is with great sadness that I have to report that Graeme Smith, the content editor in s1, has died after a long illness. Graeme was one of the longest-serving employees in s1 having worked here almost from the beginning. He was a gifted writer with a sharp dry wit, a talent he brought to bear most poignantly in the blog detailing his life after being diagnosed with brain cancer. He will be remembered for many reasons but perhaps none more so than the remarkable fortitude and optimism he showed throughout that period, and he will be sorely missed by his friends and colleagues.”

Funeral arrangements are not yet known. Send your own tribute for publishing on allmediascotland.com, here.