One of the most popular and talented journalists to work on the Leeds-based Yorkshire Evening Post, Mike Hurst, has died aged 43.

Mike worked on the paper for 16 years covering a wide range of stories.

Always a cheerful colleague, Mike, (left), joined the company from his native Sheffield where he studied journalism.

After working first for the Leeds Weekly News, he joined the news team on the YEP in 1986.

He was a skilled interviewer and court reporter, and specialised for a time as the paper’s education reporter and also pioneered pages for children.

He was also an active member of the National Union of Journalists, serving as clerk to the Yorkshire Evening Post Chapel, helping the Chapel survive through years of de-recognition.

A keen cyclist, runner and walker, Mike left the YEP in 2002 and fulfilled a lifelong ambition to walk one of Europe’s most challenging routes through the Pyrenees.

On his return he joined the news team at Yorkshire Television, leaving when he was diagnosed with cancer.

Mike, who lived in Horsforth, died in Cookridge Hospital after a long illness throughout which he remained defiantly cheerful.

Post editor Neil Hodgkinson said: “Mike was a fine journalist and a wonderful family man.

“He will be badly missed by everyone who came into contact with him, his many friends and his family.”

Mike leaves a widow, Beverley, and two young daughters, Sophie and Amanda.