This week: a British cycling champion, a boy band star and the voice of Daphne in Scooby-Doo
THE professional cyclist Sharon Laws, who has died of cancer aged 43, was a former Great Britain cyclist and British road race champion.
A professional racer for almost a decade, she was born in Kenya and was based in Girona, Spain. Spain is a favoured location for professional cyclists. Laws announced last year that she had cervical cancer at which point she returned to live with her mother in Bourton-on-the-Water in the Cotswolds.
Laws won the British national time trial title in 2008, she was national road race champion in 2012 and won team time trial bronze at the 2012 Worlds. She also helped Nicole Cooke to Olympic gold in 2008.
A statement issued by Voxwomen, the women's cycling organisation, on behalf of Laws' family said that cycling had lost a champion, a friend, and a rider with a huge smile and a fantastic laugh.
A British Cycling spokesperson also paid tribute to Laws: "She was as big-hearted and determined in life as she was on a bike, and represented her country and her sport with distinction. The thoughts of everyone at British Cycling are with her friends and family."
THE pop star Jonghyun, who has committed suicide aged 27, was a member of one of South Korea's biggest boy bands SHINee.
He was one of the five members of the band, which has had a succession of number one hits in their home country.
He found fame when the band was formed in 2008. He was a singer and dancer but also played a large part in the group's songwriting and production; he also launched a successful solo career in 2015.
Jonghyun, whose real name was Kim Jong-hyun, was found unconscious at a hotel in Seoul and was pronounced dead later at a nearby hospital.
Police said Kim's sister told them that the singer had sent her text messages such as "Final farewell" and "I've had difficulties" before his death.
South Korea has the highest suicide rate among developed countries.
THE actress Heather North, who has died aged 71, was a voice artist who played Daphne Blake in the Scooby-Doo cartoons for nearly two decades.
North voiced the danger-prone sleuth in the Hanna-Barbera series solidly between 1970 and 1986, before returning to the role over the years. Her appearances included The New Scooby-Doo Movies of the early 1970s, the Scooby-Doo and Scrappy-Doo series and The New Scooby-Doo Mysteries in 1984.
North first appeared as Daphne in September 1970 in the second-season of Scooby Doo, Where Are You! She had initially been voiced by Stefanianna Christopherson.
She was also known for starring alongside Kurt Russell in Disney's The Barefoot Executive; she also played Sandy Horton in the long-running American soap opera Days of Our Lives.
North was married to H Wesley Kenney, the Emmy Award-winning producer and director of soap operas; they met on the set of Days of Our Lives and were married in 1971.
North died in her home in Studio City, Los Angeles, after a long illness.
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