A retired journalist who spent most of his working life at the Bolton Evening News has died.

Bernard James Depledge was 70 and had fought cancer for two years.

He began his journalistic career at the age of 16 and worked at many of the national papers then based in Manchester including the Daily Telegraph, Daily Express, and The Mirror.

He joined the Bolton Evening News in 1962 and stayed with the paper for more than 25 years, becoming chief sub-editor.

Following a quadruple heart by-pass in 1991, he returned to the paper to work on the Bolton Journal, and later on commercial features.

His wife Barbara said: "He decided to move to the Bolton Evening News after we married.

"This was because we would never see each other when he worked at the national newspapers. I would be coming home and he would be leaving for work.

"Bernard had always wanted to be journalist, it was just what he wanted to do. He was always happy at the Bolton Evening News, and made some good friends who he kept in touch with after leaving."

Bolton News sports editor Dave Magilton, who worked with Bernard, said: "Bernard was a really nice man, a real gentleman and well liked in the office.

"He was a well-respected journalist."