Pensioner urges Oldhamers to support Christie campaign

Photo: Picture by DARREN ROBINSON

Philip Heginbottom

‘I had to stay in hotel to finish treatment’
Words by MARINA BERRY, Picture by DARREN ROBINSON

A SPRINGHEAD pensioner was forced to book into a hotel to complete a course of radiotherapy treatment when snow prevented him making the journey home.

Philip Heginbottom was part way through 15 days of radiotherapy treatment for prostate cancer at the Christie Hospital when the roads ground to a halt under heavy snow.

The 71-year-old said: “I started having treatment in January, and towards the end of the course, when all the snow was about, I couldn’t get home.

“I was with my wife, so we decided to book in at a hotel because I wanted to finish the treatment.”

Mr Heginbottom and his wife, Phyllis, forked out £88 for the night, and the following day were able to get back to their home in Woodbrook Avenue.

The father-of-three, who also has five grandchildren and four great-grandchildren, said: “We didn’t mind, because I didn’t want to break off in the middle of the treatment, but if I could have had it in Oldham we wouldn’t have had to spend the night in a hotel.”

He was full of praise for the staff at the Christie, and enjoyed a joke with them when twice his appointment was delayed by more than an hour because they were so busy — and he slipped into a near-by pub for a quick half.

Part of the reason the Christie is setting up satellite centres, the first of which will be in Oldham, is to ease the pressure on its radiotherapy service.

Mr Heginbottom shared his story to encourage others — who may one day need its services — to give generously to the £100,000 Christie at Oldham appeal.

He hopes to organise a fund-raising evening after summer for the cause.