57-year riddle of thank you cards sent to hospital
A FORMER patient has sent hospital staff an anonymous Christmas card every year since 1960.
Stamford Hospital in Lincolnshire said the card appeared “every year without fail” on the matron's desk, with the same message of thanks.
Matron Sue Brooks has worked at the hospital for nine years and said the card had been a “great mystery” for 57 years.
Sue, 58, said: “It would be great to find who is still so grateful after all these years. People who worked here before me said it's been coming here since 1960, always addressed to a ward that we used to have here.
“I'd love to have the person back to show them around the hospital.”
The card is addressed to nursing staff at the now disused Exeter ward and has a Chelmsford, Essex, postmark.
Sue added: “Three or four years ago, I started collecting the cards and we made a really big effort to find out who the person was – it's such a lovely story.
“It must have been something very traumatic for them to still keep sending cards. I just feel so sad that one year I'm not going to get one and I'll know why.
“It's been coming here ever since I was one-year-old.”
North West Anglia NHS Foundation Trust said “once busy” Exeter ward was all-male.
In the card, the mystery man said he was a “grateful” patient in 1960 and was “still going strong”.