How much longer can the wheels on the bus go round?

VOLUNTEER ‘Royal Rover’ driver Stan Berry is looking forward to a new vehicle.

But Stan must wait until the Royal Oldham Hospital League of Friends has raised a massive £30,550 to buy one.

Fundraisers have raised about half of their target and are now struggling to bring in the rest.

So chairman Rose Hall is urging readers to help out by holding their own events.

The free bus service, which ferries patients, staff and visitors around the sprawling Royal Oldham Hospital site, is 10 years old and failing.

Rose said: “This service is an essential part of the hospital and serves all the community, and we desperately need to get the money together to buy a new bus.”

Stan (70) has driven the bus on Monday mornings for the past 10 years, and Thursdays too since retiring. The former long-distance lorry driver, of Turf Close, Royton, looks forward to his turns at the wheel.

He has many tales to tell, but said there is always one thing in common. “We always have a laugh and a joke, and everyone tells me how grateful they are for the Royal Rover.”

Stan and his driver’s mate Kath Buckley tour the hospital site looking for people to help.

“People can still have a 15-minute walk from the car park, depending on where they are going at the hospital,” he said.

“We get people in wheelchairs and on crutches who would struggle without us, but we also run staff to their places of work, and patients who have no idea where they are going,” said Stan.

“When people give them directions they can soon get confused with lots of left and right turns, but we just drop them at the door, then they ask reception to call us when they are ready to go back to their car.”

Stan is worried the bus will grind to a halt before the money is raised to replace it.

“I’m afraid that shortly it will pack in and we won’t be able to do anything about it.”

Anyone who wants to make a donation or organise a fundraising event should send the proceeds in a cheque made out to The ROH League of Friends (RR) and send it to The ROH League Of Friends C/O The Royal Oldham Hospital, Rochdale Road, Oldham, OL1 2JH