Trailblazing sports reporter Vikki Orvice has died.
Vikki Orvice the former Sun athletics correspondent has died aged 56.
Orvice started her career at the Wakefield Express and in 1995 became a football reporter for The Sun which made her one of only a few women in sports reporting and the first in football for a tabloid paper.
Continuing her pioneering career for women in sport reporting, Orvice became The Sun’s athletics correspondent in 2002 which is a post she held until the end of last year despite being diagnosed with breast cancer in 2007.
Andy Silvester, Head of PR for The Sun, said: “Vikki was a pioneer for women in sports journalism. She’s well respected across the industry not just as the first female tabloid football writer but as a brilliant journalist.”
In her memory The Sun are launching a scholarship to help young women who have “all the qualities Vikki held so dearly” join their sports team.
Ian Ridley, her husband, said in a statement on twitter: “My beloved, bright, brilliant wife Vikki Orvice passed away at 5am, able to defy the cancer no longer. I am bereft, empty, but grateful for her life and her love.”
As well as her reporting, she also played a major role in establishing the Women in Football organisation.
Orvice also became vice-chair of the Football Writers’ Association and adding to her list of achievements – the first woman chair of the British Athletics Writers’ Association.
Tributes are pouring in for Orvice, with Sheffield’s former Olympic gold medallist Jessica Ennis-Hill paying tribute.
She was such a genuinely lovely woman. I feel really lucky to have spent so much time with her over the years of my athletic career. Lots of great memories and she will be truly missed. A very sad day. Thinking of you and your family x https://t.co/VW9LwvKaLW
— Dame Jess Ennis-Hill (@J_Ennis) February 6, 2019
