One woman's plea to the health bosses:don't do it! (From Tewkesbury Admag)

One woman's plea to the health bosses:don't do it!

Grandmother Ivy Osgood is more determined than most to fight plans to close The Willows stroke unit - she believes it has saved her husband's life.

Ivy and husband George are convinced that if he had not moved onto the ward four weeks ago today he would now be dead.

"He spent two weeks in Worcester and I thought I was losing him," said Ivy.

"He had suffered a massive stroke but while he was in there he contracted pneumonia.

"Then he became very depressed."

George, 78, of Manor Close, Badsey, a retired maintenance worker, said: "I would be dead today if I had stayed there.

"It is so different here. The staff are friendly and efficient. I call them my angels, all of them."

Wife Ivy was one of more than 300 people who wrote to Health Secretary Patricia Hewitt protesting at plans to close the ward.

"My husband had a massive stroke," she wrote. "He was in Worcester Hospital at first and had a bad experience there.

"If he had not been moved to Evesham, I would not still have had him.

"So please don't close it as I would not be able to visit him anywhere else since I suffer from angina, asthma and arthritis.

"So please, please, save our hospital. They are doing a grand job - the nurses and staff are out of this world."

The couple, who moved to the Vale from Berkshire 13 years ago, said it was George's first ever stay in hospital.

"I think part of the problem at Worcester is that they were so short of staff," said Ivy. "But no one can surely deny there is a need for a unit like this in the Vale.

"It would be criminal to close down a centre which is so important to so many people."