Birthday leads to donation to hospital (From Warrington Guardian)

Woolston gran swaps present for gifts to Warrington Hospital

3:02pm Monday 30th April 2012 in News

REACHING milestones like your 60th birthday and ruby wedding anniversary would normally lead to you being showered with gifts.

But Woolston grandma Pam Johnson had promised her family if she reached the landmark occasions, she would ask for money to be donated to Warrington Hospital rather than any presents.

The 60-year-old made the pledge 26 years ago after her brother David Whitham, from Latchford, died aged 32 of a sudden massive heart attack.

Pam, of Weir Lane, said: “My 60th birthday and 40th wedding anniversary were on the same day last year and just a few months after the 25th anniversary of losing my brother.

“My dad Jimmy died aged 41 in 1966 of a heart attack and I’ve also lost aunties and uncles with heart problems so I have always said, with my family history, if I ever make it to 60 I’ll ask everyone to donate to the hospital.”

Thanks to the generosity of Pam and her husband Dave’s friends and family and Padgate Methodist Church, the couple handed over a cheque for more than £2,500.

The cash has enabled the hospital to recently buy two state-of-the-art chairs which makes patients’ time in hospital more comfortable and helps staff manoeuver patients to other wards with ease.

Pam, who has three children and five grandchildren, added: “It’s wonderful to see the chairs in use and I’m quite choked up to hear the difference they make.

“My brother did not even get to hospital but hopefully the chairs can help other people.

“I was chatting to him when he suddenly collapsed on the floor and they couldn’t revive him.

“There’s a high-cholesterol problem in the family so I went to be checked after that and got my cholesterol down to avoid the same happening to me.

“I decided then that if I got to 60 I would donate the money in Dave’s memory.”