Newspaper apologises for publishing obituary of man who was alive

He was praised for his work supporting grassroot sports and readers were regaled about the time he ran the Olympic torch through Darlington.

There was only one problem the local newspaper obituary about Charlie Donaghy - he wasn't actually dead.

Now The Northern Echo has apologised “unreservedly” to the 83-year-old.

“This morning, The website carried an obituary to Charlie Donaghy, a lifelong supporter of grassroots sport in the North-East” the paper said in a statement. “However, we are pleased to be able to report that Mr Donaghy is alive and well.”

The paper noted that it had checked with three sources who all confirmed Mr Donaghy's passing.

However, his family claimed they were not asked before the account of his life was published.

In a statement they said: “We are devastated by the inaccuracy of this report. This has caused immeasurable distress for my sister as well to many of Dad’s friends and supporters over the years. To allow this to be released onto the internet without checking with our family is unforgivable."

They added: “You cannot un-hear or un-read that your father is dead.”

It is not the first time an obituary has surprised its subject matter.

In the most famous example, amind reports that he had fallen ill, author Mark Twain told a journalist from the New York Journal that “the report of my death was an exaggeration”.

Twain’s quip was then repeated more recently by former-Apple boss Steve Jobs - after Bloomberg published an 18-page obituary to him three years before his actual death in 2011.