The Sun daily’s  consultant editor Zainon Ahmad died due to liver cancer today. He was 70.

According to his daughter, Zuhailawati, Zainon died at 2.25pm at the Raja Perempuan Zainab II Hospital (HRPZII) in Kota Baru.

She said her father was admitted to the hospital after complaining of chest pains at their house in Jalan Bayam in Kota Baru at 1am yesterday.  

zainon ahmad at kancil awards 2010 HRPZII director Dr Mohd Ghazali Hasni Mat Hassan confirmed Zainon died at the intensive care ward at 2.25pm.

Zuhailawati said her mother Hasnah Abdullah, 65, and two siblings were at his bedside when he died.

According to Zuhailawati, her father’s body will be brought to their house in Jalan Bayam before being laid to rest at the Banggol Muslim cemetery in Kota Baru tomorrow.

Zuhailawati said her father had contracted liver cancer for quite sometime and it began to get serious in October last year.

She said before this, her father had been getting treatment at a private hospital in Subang Jaya, Selangor.       

Zainon, who was a teacher for three years before joining journalism 35 years ago, was the assistant group editor of The New Straits Times Group. He later joined The Sun as the editor-in-chief in 2002.

He was a regular speaker on the role of the media at local and international conferences and was active in various young journalist training programmes.

He was bestowed the Media Personality Award in 2010.

Zainon held a degree in History and a Master’s degree in International Relations from Universiti Malaya.

He had also studied newspaper management at the Thomson Foundation, London and was a fellow of the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tuft University, Boston, United States of America.

- Bernama