TONY BLAIR last night paid tribute to former North-East MP Roland Boyes, who died at the weekend after a long battle with Alzheimer's Disease.

Mr Boyes, who was Durham's first Euro MP before he won the Houghton and Washington parliamentary seat in 1984, died at his Peterlee home at the age of 69.

But research into the disease that claimed his life has also benefited from the intellectually gifted man it first affected in 1995.

Just after he was diagnosed with the disease in March that year, Mr Boyes vowed to use the time he had left to establish a research centre to help battle the condition.

Together with his wife, Pat, the couple raised £40,000 which led to the opening of "Roland's Room", a specialist imaging suite at Newcastle General Hospital. The centre is used daily.

A hospital spokesman said: "We are deeply grateful for the donation of the imaging suite, which has helped us to move forward in finding biological changes in Alzhei-mer's patients.''

Born in Holmfirth, West Yorkshire, Mr Boyes studied chemistry at Leicester University before he attended Coventry Training College to become a teacher.

There, he met his future wife and after they married, the couple moved to Peterlee, from where Mr Boyes taught at Wingate, Shotton Hall and Seaham.

With a degree in economics and a masters degree in Education, Mr Boyes took up a post at Durham County Hall, where he rose to become assistant director of education.

He joined the Labour Party at the age of 15 and served as a Peterlee Town councillor and an Easington district councillor before he was selected for the new Euro seat of Durham. he then went onto become MP for Houghton and Washington.

A devoted constituency MP, he felt passionately about those he represented and about his adopted North-East home.

He was also a keen photographer, producing the popular "People in Parliament" book, in which he pictured every MP at that time. His illness, however prevented him from completing his follow-up publication -Women at Westminster.

His successor in the Houghton seat, Fraser Kemp, said yesterday: "Roland was a dedicated and talented man who worked very hard for the people of his constituency, and he will be fondly and affectionately remembered.

Tony Blair said: "Roland was a very good and able constituency MP; he was a supporter of New Labour and one of those responsible for the changes in the party. He will be sadly missed by us all."

As well as his widow, who nursed Mr Boyes throughout his long illness, he leaves two sons, David and Paul, and four grandchildren.

A funeral service will be held at St Cuthbert's Church, Peterlee, at 1pm on Thursday.