A former regional newspaper editor had died aged 52 after a four-year battle with cancer.

Tributes have been paid to Seuna Martin, who served as group editor of the Paisley Gazette and Gateshead Post and assistant editor of Aberdeen daily the Press & Journal.

She then became assistant editor of the Press Association before going on to a career in national newspapers.

Seuna was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 2013 and died on 7 November.

She had returned to Scotland in the 1990s to work on the Daily Express in Glasgow, firstly as deputy editor and then with the additional title of managing editor.

With her husband, Gordon, also a former P&J journalist, she founded the PR firm Milestone Media in 2000.

Gordon said: “Seuna was such an inspirational person, an amazing wife to me and an incredible mother to our two children, Mara and Romy and her stepchildren, Adam and Jack.

“No one who met ever forgot her. This was in part, she would say, to the unusual spelling of her name which she revelled in. She was a brilliant writer and rightly proud of the success she had in both careers in journalism and PR.

“The cancer certainly stopped her in her tracks but she never gave up trying to find a cure, travelling to Germany and Latvia, amongst other places, with a focused desire to try to prolong her life in a bid to see her children growing up.

“Sadly this was not to be but right until the final moments when I discovered the cancer had spread to her spine and brain I genuinely believed she would manage to dodge this ultimate toxic bullet. My comfort is that our daughters have inherited her beauty and brains and hopefully in future years her drive, tenacity and compassion.”

Seuna, who lived in Crieff, near Perth, is also survived by her mother Margaret and sister Heather. Her funeral will be held at St Andrew’s Hall, Crieff, at 12 noon today.

This will be followed by a natural woodland burial at Strowan Woodland Cemetery.