'Braveheart's' tonic for hospital

Denise Hendry wanted to thank the hospital

Life-saving equipment bought by a former soccer star's fundraising campaign is being used by patients at the Royal Preston Hospital.

Blackpool FC Manager Colin Hendry, a former Scotland international nicknamed Braveheart, raised more than £15,000 to buy the heart monitor.

Hendry and his wife Denise formally unveiled the machine at the hospital.

Mrs Hendry was treated by the Royal after she nearly died during plastic surgery at a private hospital.

'Fantastic achievement'

Mrs Hendry said: "We can't thank staff at Royal Preston Hospital enough for taking such good care of me and we wanted to show our appreciation by raising some funds for the critical care unit.

"We couldn't have reached this fantastic achievement without the help of our family and friends and we'd like to say a huge thank you to everyone who contributed to the special day."

The machine at the hospital's critical care unit monitors the cardiac output of seriously ill patients without the need to carry out the dangerous procedure of inserting monitoring into the heart.

Mrs Hendry's life was saved by blood transfusion at the Royal three years ago.