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LONDON (Reuters) - Tessa Jowell, a former British government minister who was instrumental in bringing the Olympic Games to London in 2012, died on Saturday after a brain haemorrhage, her family said.

Jowell, who was 70, was diagnosed with brain cancer in May last year.

Former Prime Minister Tony Blair led the tributes to Jowell, saying she had “passion, determination and simple human decency in greater measure than any person I have ever known”.

Jowell joined the government as a minister in the Department for Health after Blair’s Labour Party won the 1997 election by a landslide.

Blair appointed her to the cabinet in 2001 as Minister for Culture, Media and Sport, where she headed London’s successful Olympic Games bid.

Following her cancer diagnosis, Jowell campaigned for better treatment for cancer patients from Britain’s state-funded health service.

Conservative Prime Minister Theresa May said: “The dignity and courage with which Dame Tessa Jowell confronted her illness was humbling and inspirational.”