A former reporter in the local and national media, described as "a true character" by colleagues, has died aged 50.

Phil Smith died in his sleep after suffering a heart attack in his native West Midlands.

He worked as a trainee reporter on the Warley News in 1967 and went on to others in the Midlands as well as others in Kent and in Tehran, Iran.

He was most recently the council reporter at the North West Evening Mail in Barrow-in-Furness, where he worked between 1997 and 2000, before returning to the Midlands to work in PR.

Apart from journalism, his other passion in life was travel, and according to former colleagues, he managed to combine the two wherever possible.

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