THE Northern Echo's former sports editor, Nick Helliwell, has died aged 59.

Mr Helliwell, who used to live in Darlington, worked on the sports pages in the early 1990s.

He left the paper to work in Barrow-in-Furness, South Cumbria. He later moved to London and then Spain, where he had been ill for some time.

Mr Helliwell was born in Basingstoke.

He became sports editor and was founding editor for a number of specialist monthly magazines produced by the Barrow Evening Mail in the late 1980s, including Northen Boat, Northern Horse and Northern Dog.

He left Barrow to be sports editor of The Northern Echo, in Darlington, but returned in August 1992 to become the Mail's chief sub-editor.

In the mid-1990s, he moved to London to work on the national magazine Horse and Hound and later moved to Spain.

Peter Barron, editor of The Northern Echo, said: "Nick was a very nice, gentle person who was well liked by everyone on the staff.

"We are very sorry to hear of his sad passing.

"He will be much missed and we would like to offer our condolences to his family."