Tributes paid to Daily Echo journalist Bridget Manley

Bridget Manley was the smiling face of the former Wimborne office for most of her 20 years with the Bournemouth-based paper, from 1990 to 2010.

The devoted mum-of-two, who lived in Merley, died at Forest Holme Hospice in Poole after receiving months of treatment for a brain tumour.

There was standing-room only at a recent service to celebrate her life, held at Harbour View Crematorium and Woodland Burial Ground, Lytchett Minster.

Bridget Manley, centre, during AFC Bournemouth's promotion night earlier this year

Family and friends packed into the ceremony hall to pay their respects to a multi-talented reporter, mother and daughter. 

Bridget herself had helped to organise the event, and her famous positivity, practicality and modesty shone through proceedings.

Celebrant Rob Hazell told the hall: "She didn't want a lot of flowers, she found and wrote words to be said, and she put together a 'My Funeral' Spotify playlist". 

He revealed that Bridget's doctor and nurses at the hospice said no other patient had ever asked after their own health as often as she had done.

Sons, Ben, 29, a teacher, and Joe, 26, who works for Citibank in London but was still living with Bridget, also both shared thoughts about their amazing mum during the service.

Bridget Manley

She loved sport and travel and embraced life to the full, packing in experiences and making memories for her family even after her diagnosis in January 2021.

She was at Dean Court with Joe when AFC Bournemouth won promotion back to the Premier League in May this year, and, despite her advanced illness, got herself to the pitch after the match to touch the turf.

Joe will be competing in the London Marathon in October, to raise funds for The Brain Tumour Charity.

Bridget was a consummate professional, popular with colleagues and work contacts in the East Dorset area that was covered by the Wimborne office.

Her parents, who survive her, were poultry farmers and she was born and bred in Somerset, where her reporting career began, covering local and not-so-local stories.

Bridget Manley, far right, with Wimborne office colleagues Sharen Green, far left and Jenna Fansa, centre

One job for the Somerset County Gazette took her 8,000 miles from home to the Falkland Islands. She joined 3rd Battalion The Light Infantry out there in 1988, to report on the situation six years after the war.

Interestingly, as a teenager, she had applied to join the British Army and got to the final selections for the Intelligence Corps before deciding to accept a place on a specialist journalism course in Cardiff instead.

Her eldest son, Ben, told the Echo: "I always used to say Mum would have been a fantastic interrogator in the Army. People think you have to be tough but the real skill is being able to build up trust to extract information, which mum could do so well."

Ed Perkins, a former boss and friend at the Bournemouth paper, remembers "a top journalist with a rare sensitivity in handling the most difficult and delicate stories".

"The editor, Neal Butterworth, and I used to say how lucky we were to have Bridget, and all the Wimborne office, covering East Dorset. They just got on with the job with total professionalism."

Jenna Fansa, a fellow reporter in Wimborne, said: "Bridget was the kindest soul and she faced her illness with grace and courage.

"She was a wonderful mum to Ben and Joe and a talented, tenacious and well-respected journalist who was full of integrity.

"Her death at such a young age is a tragedy but her positivity, even when times were tough, is a lesson to us all. I am tremendously grateful for the times we had together."

Donations to The Brain Tumour Charity in memory of Bridget can be made via www.justgiving.com/fundraising/Joe-London-Marathon or via www.tapperfuneralservice.co.uk