Tributes to pioneering sports journalist Vikki

tHE world of sport paid tribute yesterday to pioneering journalist Vikki Orvice after she lost her long battle with cancer. Orvice, 56, worked for The

Daily Mail in the early 1990s and became the first female football writer appointed by

The Sun in 1995. Vikki (right) went on to become The Sun’s athletics correspondent and was a founding member of the Women in Football campaign group.

Her husband ian ridley, former chief football writer of The Mail

on Sunday, wrote yesterday: ‘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. those who feel the breath of sadness, sit down next to me.’ the 2012 Olympic heptathlon champion dame Jessica EnnisHill wrote: ‘ she was such a genuinely lovely woman. i feel 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.’ Broadcaster Jacqui Oatley added: ‘she was a driving force for a change in football culture.’