A journalist who worked for six regional daily titles across a 25-year career has died aged 53.

Tributes have been paid to Mark Templeton, who worked on North Wales daily The Leader, the Lancashire Telegraph, Oxford Mail, Western Daily Press, South Wales Argus and Essex daily The Echo

Father-of-two Mark, pictured, died in a care home in Wrexham on 8 June, two years after being diagnosed with the rare neurological disease progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP).

PSP is incurable and causes problems with balance, movement, vision, speech and swallowing that worsen as the disease progresses. Just 4,000 people in the UK have the disease, mostly people aged over 60.

In a statement, his mother Anne and brother Andrew said: “Mark loved music and the news from an early age, hosting a show on hospital radio in his home city of Wrexham when he was just 16-years-old.

“He was a fantastic son, brother, and the best dad to his two boys.

“The illness he suffered – PSP – is so cruel and awful, but he fought it very bravely and still loved listening to music until the end.”

Former South Wales Argus editor Kevin Ward worked with Mark throughout his time at the Newport daily and the two became firm friends.

Kevin said: “Losing Mark is absolutely devastating for all his family and friends, but particularly for his two young sons.

“Mark and I were great friends for more than 20 years and we had some brilliant times together. I will miss him terribly.

“He was energetic, witty, huge fun to be around and a superbly talented journalist. To see the effect PSP had on him at such a young age has been heartbreaking.”

Mark started his journalism career in 1989 when he joined the Evening Leader in Wrexham as a trainee reporter, rising to become deputy news editor before leaving in 1995 for a brief stint working as a freelance reporter in the US.

He returned to the UK in 1996 as education correspondent at the Lancashire Telegraph in Blackburn.

Mark joined the Oxford Mail as local government correspondent in 1999 before returning to Blackburn the following year as news editor.

After two years running the Blackburn newsdesk, he moved to the Western Daily Press to work the same role, covering an area from Swindon to Cornwall.

In 2004, Mark moved to Newport and joined the South Wales Argus as news editor before being promoted to assistant editor with direct responsibility for the newspaper’s fast-growing website.

He stayed in Newport for almost nine years before heading south to Basildon in 2012 to run the newsdesk at the Echo.

Mark then moved away from newspapers in 2014, working in PR at Medway Council before becoming head of communications at the Ebbsfleet Development Corporation in 2016.

He set up his own company, Spark PR, in 2022 and ran that until he was diagnosed with PSP a year later.

Mark’s funeral took place in Wrexham on 26 June.