A GRATEFUL patient has marked his golden wedding anniversary by donating more than �500 to Ipswich Hospital.

Rebecca Lefort

A GRATEFUL patient has marked his golden wedding anniversary by donating more than �500 to Ipswich Hospital.

Donald Baldock was so overwhelmed by the care and compassion shown by the Heath Road nurses and doctors that instead of presents he asked people to give cash for the cause when he and his wife, Kathleen, celebrated 50 years together.

Mr Baldock, 74, of Grundisburgh Road, Woodbridge, was taken to Ipswich Hospital with pneumonia on his wife's birthday, November 21.

His condition was so serious that he stayed in the critical care unit for a fortnight, battling the disease.

The father-of-five and grandfather-of-eight, said: “They put me on a life support machine.

“My family was so worried because the infection on my lung looked like broccoli, and it could kill me.

“The care I received was absolutely wonderful. The consultants suggested the nurses start a diary so when I woke up I could see what had happened to me, and seven or eight of them gave up their time to write in it.

“I haven't been in hospital before but they were there when I needed them the most.”

After leaving the critical care ward Mr Baldock spent one week on a general ward and is now fighting fit.

So when the couple celebrated their wedding anniversary on March 14 they asked people to give money for the critical care unit as a thank you, and collected �560.

Mr Baldock added: “It is great to be able to say thank you, because without them I might have died.”

Would you like to say thank you to Ipswich Hospital? Write to Your Letters, Evening Star, 30 Lower Brook Street, Ipswich IP4 1AN or e-mail eveningstarletters@eveningstar.co.uk.