THE life of former Blackburn journalist Glenn Thomas, killed in the Malaysia Airlines crash in the Ukraine, will be celebrated at a humanist funeral next month.

The World Health Organisation press officer’s body was returned to his family in Blackpool last week in time for what would have been his 50th birthday on Saturday.

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He will be laid to rest at a special service at Lytham’s Lowther Pavilion on October 15.

Mr Thomas, one of 298 people killed when flight MH17 was downed in July, worked for a couple of years at Granada’s East Lancashire bureau in Daisyfield, Blackburn, in the 1990s.

He also worked on the Blackpool Citizen newspaper, a sister publication of the Lancashire Telegraph, in the late ’80s and early ’90s before his move to the town.

Mr Thomas, who lived in Geneva, was travelling to Australia for a conference on Aids when the plane crashed.

His twin sister Tracey Withers said the service would be “a celebration” of his life.

She said: "He loved life and that's the theme."

Ms Withers added it had been a “big relief” when her brother's body was returned to the UK last week.

She said: “I thought I was never going to get him home, and I feel for all the other families. But it's nice to know there are people all over the world thinking about you."

He was one of ten Britons on board the Boeing 777-200, which is thought to have been shot down over war-torn Ukraine.

As well as Tracey and family in Blackpool, Mr Thomas leaves a partner Claudio.