The assistant editor of the Bristol Evening Post, Steve McLean, has died of cancer.

Steve, who was just 45, passed away on Wednesday night surrounded by his family at Malmesbury Hospital.

In a deeply moving article written 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.”

Steve showed no self-pity and from the moment he knew he had cancer he remained positive and resolute and remarkably, he remained cheerful.

He had the courage to speak publicly about his plight because at the time the Bath Area Health Authority were refusing to pay for vital drugs he needed. The authority 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.

Steve leaves a wife, Nicola and a young son Patrick who was nine last Thursday.

He had been diagnosed with cancer on April 26 – less than 12 weeks ago.

Doctors first found it in his colon but they later discovered it had spread to his liver.

He was due to start a course of chemotherapy three days ago but doctors said he was simply too ill.

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

It was on that day that a special golf tournament arranged by two of his colleagues here at the Evening Post, Chris Bartlett and Mike Stafford, to raise money for him was taking place at Bristol Golf Club. Almost 100 people took part and raised more than £8,000.

Steve was born in Liverpool and had spent all his working life in newspapers starting in in 1976 on the Lincolnshire and South Humberside Times as a trainee reporter.

He went on to work as a reporter for the Sheffield Star and the Evening News in Edinburgh where he spent five years.

Steve became deputy editor of the Wiltshire Gazette and Herald in 1987, and 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. It was 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 fan and when he heard of illness, Radio Bristol’s Geoff Twentyman contacted the club who sent a shirt signed by the first team squad.

The Post had that shirt framed and last night it was at the foot Steve’s bedside when he died.

Today Evening Post editor Mike Lowe said: “We are all desperately sad today. Steve was a dedicated journalist, a perfectionist who wanted to produce the best papers possible.

“He has been closely involved in enormous changes here over the past five years and met every new challenge positively and with great energy. We will all miss him as journalist but more importantly we will miss him as a colleague and friend.”

Work was important to Steve (left) but nothing was more important than his family as the following two extracts from an article he wrote reveal.

First about his wife: “After nearly 10 years together, we’re still strongly and deeply in love. Some people say I don’t have much small talk. The phrase would be ‘He needs to get out more’. But since we have been together, apart from the occasional business course or jaunt I haven’t wanted to spend my time with anyone else.”

And this about his son, whom he called Paddy and used to ring every morning before school: “On the night he arrived at St Michael’s Hospital July 4 1993 my world was complete.

“Nicola and he were everything I’d ever wanted and the drive home to Farrington Gurney in our battered Volvo in the early hours of the next morning was like a dream limousine ride.”

Details of Steve’s funeral will be announced shortly.

Do you have a story about the regional press? Ring 0116 227 3122/3121, or
e-mail [email protected]