Sally Mellis, who was forced by illness to stand down as chief executive of the National Council for the Training of Journalists, has died aged 57.
Mellis had been on sick leave since December when she was diagnosed with a brain tumour.
She joined the NCTJ in 1982 and was examinations manager, training director and deputy chief executive before being appointed chief executive a year ago.
She organised the twice-yearly National Certificate Examination sat by around 500 trainee journalists a year, and supervised the pre-entry training of many hundreds more at 32 NCTJ-accredited colleges and universities.
Mellis took over as acting NCTJ chief executive following the sudden death of chief executive Rob Selwood and was later confirmed in the post. She leaves leaves a husband, David, son Jamie and daughter Zoe.
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