Patient gives £10,000 to hospital

Sir Ray Tindle praised hospital staff for saving his life twice

A newspaper entrepreneur has donated £10,000 to a hospital trust in Surrey as a way of thanking staff for saving his life for a second time.

Sir Ray Tindle, 81, who owns more than 200 newspapers across the UK, was taken to Frimley Park Hospital last November after suffering kidney failure.

He was unconscious in the intensive care unit for the first five days, and spent a further six weeks on a ward.

Sir Ray said a "brilliant" team of doctors and nurses had cared for him.

I have never seen medical services as good as these Sir Ray Tindle

"I don't want to get any nearer to the other side than I did then," he said.

"The staff have been brilliant and I can't speak too highly of them."

Sir Ray has been a long-term supporter of the hospital and previously helped set up the Patric centre, which gives patients advice and information about medical conditions and treatments.

He was first a patient in 1996 when he was diagnosed with throat cancer and had to have his voice box removed.

"Frimley Park Hospital has now saved my life twice and they are superb," Sir Ray said.

'Generous supporter'

"I have been around a bit, I am not young and I was a soldier in the Second World War but I have never seen medical services as good as these.

"I am old enough to remember when there was no such thing as the NHS. It has been absolutely marvellous for everybody."

Sir Ray has now been discharged from hospital and is under doctor's orders to rest for six weeks.

One of Sir Ray's medical team, consultant urologist Bruce Montgomery, said he had been a "very generous supporter" of various causes in the hospital.

"It is nice to be able to pay some of that gratitude back by looking after him."