This is taken from The Guardian:

Richard Hannaford
Softly-spoken BBC health correspondent
by Bob Chaundy
Thursday 24 November 2011 18.17 GMT

Richard Hannaford, who has died of cancer at the age of 49, was a well-known broadcaster, blessed with a soft baritone voice that helped him make his mark as the BBC News health correspondent, mainly for radio but also for television. Later, he became a familiar voice on health and social affairs for the Irish national broadcaster RTÉ and was editorial director of Harmonia, the large Irish magazine publishing company owned by his wife, Norah Casey.

Richard was born in London. His family moved to Jersey when he was 12. He attended Victoria college there before moving to Lincolnshire. He studied English at Queen Mary College, University of London (1981–84), then completed a diploma in radio journalism at Highbury College, Portsmouth. The following year, he joined the BBC as a trainee reporter, during which time he was dispatched to local radio stations around the UK. He soon proved himself a natural radio broadcaster, gifted with a voice that was sweet on the ear. In 1989 he was invited to join the BBC's national radio news pool. Among his early duties was reporting for the Today programme.

In 1994, during the era when the director-general John Birt created specialist units within BBC News, Richard was given the health brief for radio. Over the next eight years he established himself as an authority on health matters and a keen analyst of government policies. It was a turbulent time for the NHS. Each winter brought crises over bed shortages, and John Major's government began pushing ahead with the introduction of the internal market within the service. Richard's reports on this and issues such as mad-cow disease (BSE), and its human equivalent, vCJD, were delivered in a voice that exuded trustworthiness.

Richard cared deeply about his subject, and maintained a calm and unruffled presence in the cut-and-thrust atmosphere of the radio newsroom. He was a prolific and hard-working journalist with a self-sufficiency that required little production assistance. Editors found him unflappable and always on call when needed.

As well as reporting news, he also wrote and presented documentary series for Radio 4, most notably Building a Healthier Britain, in which he evaluated various epidemiological studies on such topics as diabetes, dementia and schizophrenia. In 1998 he was presented with the Nursing in the Media award by Tony Blair.

In 2002 Richard left the BBC and relocated to Dublin, where Norah, whom he had married in 1996, was rising high in the publishing world. He transplanted his authority, too, and in that year wrote and presented a 10‑part radio documentary series, The Truth About the Health Service, for RTÉ. The following year, his six-part series on illicit drugs earned him the Irish Health Writers' Broadcaster of the Year award.

Alongside his broadcasting, Richard displayed a talent for business through his wife's company. As editorial director, he was responsible for the contract publishing division that launched, among other titles, the men's version of Irish Tatler and acquired and rebranded the magazine Ireland of the Welcomes. He was also vice-chairman of Magazines Ireland and sat on the board of Ireland's Health Information and Quality Authority.

He is survived by his mother, Adria, his brother, Simon, Norah and their son, Dara.

• Richard Wade Buchanan Hannaford, broadcaster and publisher, born 17 May 1962; died 12 October 2011