A former daily journalist who refunded more than £300,000 raised for her own cancer treatment after she found out she could get it on the NHS has died aged 52.

Roz Paterson, who used to work for the Daily Record, lost her fight against an aggressive form of blood cancer after first being diagnosed last summer.

Roz launched a crowdfunder earlier this year in a bid to undergo therapy for her illness in America, but gave £323,000 worth of donations back after discovering she would be able to receive it at King’s College Hospital, in London, instead.

The mother-of-two had been told she may only have weeks to live at the time she launched her crowdfunder.

She began receiving treatment from the NHS in March, but it was later stopped after she was told her bone marrow no longer worked.

Her death was announced on Friday in a post on the blog she had written during her illness.

Malcolm McDonald, her partner of 27 years, wrote: “Roz’s blog has touched a lot of people. Elegant and frank, threaded through with her signature self-effacing humour, Roz’s posts eloquently told the story of one woman’s battle with cancer.

“And I think, you know, you read her blog and felt like you had got to know her. You had got to really like the way she told her story.

“You thought she was this wickedly funny, insightful, clever, strong, kind, inspirational, brave woman. You could see the beauty in her, the steel, the fire. Well, you know what? You were right.”

Roz died at Raigmore Hospital, in Inverness, last Monday. Her funeral details have yet to be announced.