A regional journalist who later went on to Fleet Street has died of a rare form of cancer aged 72.

Barry Edwards, described as a “brilliant journalist”, served a number of regional press titles before joining the Daily Mail.

At the Mail, he rose to become deputy editor prior to his retirement in 2005.

Barry, pictured, had been ill with myelodysplastic syndrome, a rare type of cancer where sufferers’ bone marrow does not make enough healthy blood cells, since the age of 70.

Born in Hampshire, Barry moved to Scunthorpe, Lincolnshire, aged 10 and began his career as a trainee reporter on the Lincolnshire Times at the aged of 17.

He went on to work at the now-defunct Hull and Yorkshire Times and then the Nottingham Evening Post, where he moved into sub-editing, before joining the Mail in 1979.

A Mail obituary states: “He held several senior positions on the newspaper, was regarded as a brilliant journalist by colleagues, and was much valued for his unstinting hard work and wise counsel by his superiors.”

Barry, who died on 23 May, is survived by Glenis, sons Paul and Tim, four grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.

His funeral will be held on 24 June at North Hertfordshire Memorial Park and Crematorium, Holwell, Hitchin, followed by a wake at Letchworth Golf Club.

Donations in his memory can be made to the Macmillan cancer unit at the Lister Hospital, Stevenage.