FAMILY and friends have raised funds for the intensive care unit at Warrington Hospital in memory of a dad who spent his final days on the ward.

Dad-of-one Mark Bostock, from Callands, died aged 44 of a bleed on the brain in March this year following a fall.

It had been his second spell on the intensive care unit, having spent two weeks on the ward when he was placed into an induced coma the previous November after contracting pneumonia.

Niece Melissa McWilliams said: “He was the life and soul of the party – he was a fantastic dad to James and a fantastic uncle, brother and son.

“He was just a genuinely nice guy who would always make you smile when you entered a room – he was a character who did everything for everybody and was always putting other people before himself.

“If you asked everyone who was a part of Mark’s life, everybody would be able to give you a different story – he would try to make a joke out of everything and he still makes us laugh now with the stories that people come out with.

“The first time he was on the unit, Mark had started going into multiple organ failure and we were told that he wouldn’t survive – we got everybody in to come and say their goodbyes but miraculously he pulled through.

“When he was recovering he had the nurses in stitches.

“After he passed away we were asked whether he would like to donate his organs, and we all agreed that that’s what he’d want to do – again, Mark carried on giving even after his death and made people happy which was his life.”

Four months on from his death, his teammates at Moore United – whom he played alongside for more than 20 years – held a crown green bowls day at the Grange Sports and Social Club in Latchford to raise funds for the unit and the Royal National Lifeboat Institute, with Mark having been a keen speedboater.

On Friday, friends and family returned to the ward to present them with £550 in memory of Mark, who was originally from Latchford.

It is now hoped that the bowls day will become an annual event to raise funds in his name.

Melissa, from Padgate, added: “The unit was amazing with both Mark and with us as well.

“They are like angels – they’re miracle workers who go above and beyond with the things that they do and the way that they are with the patients and their families.

“There must be something in their blood that makes them go above and beyond.

“We just wanted to say thanks to everybody who helped to care for Mark, not only when he was on the intensive care unit but when he was down on the ward as well.

“I will be forever grateful – the experience of losing Mark was horrendous but they made it that little bit easier.”