Colleagues pay tribute to Channel 4 journalist Sarah Corp, who died of cancer aged just 41

A Channel 4 News journalist who died of cancer aged just 41 was described as “most brilliant” and “irreplaceable” by colleagues today.

Presenters Jon Snow and Krishnan Guru-Murthy were among colleagues paying tribute to senior foreign affairs producer Sarah Corp.

In a statement, Channel 4 News said: “It’s been a deeply personal loss for us on Channel 4 News, but is a serious loss, too, to our journalism.

“She was an irreplaceable presence in many parts of the world from which we reported.”

Snow, who looked emotional as he collected a Bafta for the channel’s news coverage of the Paris terrorist attacks last week, called her “my dearest and most brilliant producer”.

He said: “If Channel 4 News’ foreign coverage stands out, it is in very strong measure down to the work of Sarah Corp,

“This extraordinary period of instability across the world, Sarah had to work on most of it, and yet it never jaded her - she never lost her humanity.”

Guru-Murthy said Ms Corp’s death on Tuesday had left everyone “quietly devastated”.

“Sarah’s great talent was knowing how to play to the strengths of the people she was with while quietly compensating for their weaknesses...She also told you exactly when you were wrong or in danger of being wrong.

"So she would give you the confidence to be bold on air because you knew she would reign you in before you said something stupid.”

Ms Corp was brought up in Blackheath with her father John, an oil trader, and mother Prue, a modern languages teacher and concert manager.

A talented musician, she attended the James Allen’s Girls’ School before reading history at Selwyn College, Cambridge.

She joined ITN in 1998 as a newsdesk assistant at Channel 4 News, progressing up the ranks before being made senior foreign producer in 2011.

She worked on virtually every major story of the past 15 years, from the 2003 invasion of Iraq, the earthquake disaster in Haiti, the Arab Spring in Tunisia and Egypt, and the Libyan revolution.

In 2008 she married Charles Bates in Blackheath and the couple lived in Prague and East Dulwich.

She was diagnosed with an aggressive form of cancer around 18 months ago and spent the last year off work having chemotherapy.

Her final assignment was the Hong Kong “umbrella revolution” in October 2014.

Her family, including sister Rachel, editor of ITV News London, and Elinor, conductor and assistant director of music at James Allen’s girls’ school, were said to be “understandably devastated” by her death.

Foreign affairs correspondent Jonathan Rugman, who travelled with Ms Corp to Mount Sinjar covering the Yazidi massacre, said she was “one of the finest television journalists of her generation”.

Mr Rugman said Ms Corp kept much of the details about her illness private.

“She was incredibly private about it. She wanted us to remember her at the height of her powers so she kept a lot of what she was doing from us, deliberately.

“And she preferred to spend her final months with her husband Charles, whom she adored.”

The last time her colleagues saw her was around three weeks ago at a leaving party for a veteran cameraman, he said.

“That was the last time any of us had the chance to say goodbye.”

International editor Lindsey Hilsum added: “She was the hub. She was the person who kept everything going. She was the person who made sure it was right. Sarah was the one who held us all together.

“She was the most extraordinary producer and the most extraordinary friend.”

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