A MUCH loved Wycombe Wanderers fan has passed away aged 24 from a rare form of cancer, just a month after getting married.

Jonathan Saunders, 24, of Tring died on Tuesday surrounded by family at the Hospice of St Francis from Ewing's sarcoma.

He was diagnosed a year ago and married Adella Baxter on August 6 in Preston, where they had both met while studying journalism at the University of Central Lancashire.

Jonathan, who was known to friends and family as Jonny, was the Tring reporter at the Hemel Hempstead Gazette, where he worked since 2009.

His auntie, Josie Coombs, said: "He was an avid supporter of Wycombe Wanderers. He has been since the age of seven when my brother started taking him to the games.

"They tried to get to all the away matches as well as the home matches."

He was a popular member of the Wycombe Wanderers fan site, the Gasroom, under the name of My Only Wycombe.

Jonny lived with his parents, Gerald and Jenny Saunders, in Tring before he moved in with Adella in Hemel Hempstead after they married. He also had an older sister called Rosalyn.

Josie said he was extremely brave when he was diagnosed with cancer.

She said: "We thought he was winning the battle in January- only to find out in May that it had spread. "He proposed to his fiancée in February of this year in Disneyland Paris.

"They were due to get married next year. They decided to bring it forward to this year- August 20.

"But about a month before that they were told if they wanted to get married they needed to get married within the next two weeks."

So on August 6 they married in Preston at Bartle Hall, which Josie said was a wonderful day.

She said: "He looked so happy. They both did."

Josie said: "They were just so in love. You could just see it.

"They were just besotted with each other."

And she said Jonny put up such a fight against cancer, and he didn't complain, and lived his life to the full.

Josie said he loved his job as a reporter and was well respected in Tring.

Editor of the Hemel Hempstead Gazette, Adam Hollier, said: "I had the pleasure of giving Jonny his first job in journalism as the Tring reporter for the Berkhamsted and Tring Gazette.

"From the start it was very obvious that Jonny had a real passion for the town and an unbreakable passion for Wycombe Wanderers, from which he would return to the office every Monday with tales of defeat and long journeys up the motorway.

"Jonny was a real pleasure to have in the newsroom, he was always upbeat and joking and making tea when things got hectic. As a reporter he was considerate, sensitive and charming – as indeed he was in life.

"I have never seen anyone bear an illness in such grace and in death as in life I am sure he will remain a true inspiration to everyone he met."

He was well thought of at the Bucks Free Press where he did work experience several years ago.

Josie added: "He was the nicest, kindest lad you could meet. All the tributes to him on Facebook and on the Gasroom have said what an absolute genuine friend he was and the nicest person you could meet.

"That was him. He was so caring-such a lovely lad."