Widow's £1,200 thank you to Dudley's Russells Hall Hospital
The grateful widow of a motor neurone patient has donated £1,200 to a hospital as a thank you for the care he received.
Kay Taylor's husband Roy died on December 29 after battling bronchiectasis and motor neurone disease so she decided to donate money raised at his funeral to Russells Hall Hospital in Dudley to show her gratitude for the support he had received.
The self-employed builder, who lived with his wife in Bridgnorth Road, Himley, was admitted to the hospital in 2009 with pneumonia and his health deteriorated steadily from then on, but Mrs Taylor said the hospital staff helped to keep him alive for longer than expected.
So she has donated the £1,200 given by the 150 wellwishers at his funeral service to the hospital's lung function unit and was particularly thankful to Dr Philip Brammer, a specialist in respiratory medicine, who saw Mr Taylor after his usual appointments because he was so poorly when he was first admitted to the hospital.
"Quite frankly, Russells Hall for all the years we had been going there had been absolutely wonderful and I thank Dr Brammer for keeping Roy alive for so long.
"Basically, the staff at Russells Hall had done all the work and all the caring so I felt it was worthy for them to have the money," Mrs Taylor said.
She described how he deteriorated and had to use a ventilator to help his breathing, while he visited Papworth hospital in Cambridgeshire twice a year where staff would monitor him and adjust his ventilator accordingly.
She added: "His breathing became very difficult. Motor neurone is a muscle wasting disease and consequently he had to use a wheelchair. We had to keep him upstairs because we could not get him down and it got to the stage where everything had to be done for him. He deteriorated quite rapidly and his breathing became very difficult, though his ventilator helped him."
The couple lived in the village for 34 years and Mr Taylor was a familiar face at Enville Golf Club, while he was also a keen horse racing fan.
"He loved Himley and he was a very popular person and knew lots of people. There were about 150 people at the funeral and obviously he was very well thought of because the donations were so great."
