Keith’s £2,000 ‘thank you’ to cancer surgeon
ACANCER survivor has thanked the surgeon who operated on him by raising money for medical equipment.
Keith Oldham, 58, collected the money for Macclesfield District General Hospital to buy a surgical headlight.
He did this after staff there performed a successful operation to remove a bowel tumour in May 2017.
Keith was so grateful for the life-saving care by consultant Chris Smart that when he and his wife Andrea got married in September, they asked for donations to cover the cost of the equipment rather than gifts.
Thanks to the generosity of the couple’s family and friends, this raised much more than the £2,000 required for the headlight.
Keith, who lives in Congleton, is now planning to donate the remainder of the funds raised to a cancer-related cause in the area.
The father-of-three said: “Chris is an amazing guy and has a fantastic bedside manner.
“He’s now one of my heroes and I’ll never forget what he did for me, along with the staff at the Macmillan Centre and on ward one at Macclesfield Hospital.
“Throughout my experience with the NHS, the staff at every level have been wonderful.
“This is from the housekeeper who brought me a cup of tea in the morning after my surgery to the consultants who oversaw my care. I’ve experienced such wonderful humanity and I wanted to give a little back by fundraising for this additional piece of equipment which will benefit Chris and, in turn, his patients.”
Keith, who works as a freelance IT contractor, has been through several rounds of chemotherapy and radiotherapy.
He has also had additional tumours removed from his lungs in recent months.
Chris added: “I am extremely grateful to Keith for what he has done for us.
“Despite everything he has been through he has remained amazingly positive and continued to think about helping other people.
“This very high quality piece of equipment will help me and my colleagues to work effectively when performing surgery in areas like the pelvis, which can be very hard to see into.”
If you would like to raise funds for East Cheshire NHS Trust’s official charity ECHO visit www.echnhscharity.org.