Moving Tale For Transplant Couple
12 Dec 2013

A North East couple, desperate to live nearer to the hospital providing life saving treatment, finally got the green light to move - just the day before surgery.

Derek Rose was about to make his way to the Freeman Hospital in Newcastle when he was told his North Yorkshire home had been sold, clearing the way for him and wife Eileen to relocate to a property closer to the medics and family.

The next day he donated a kidney to Eileen and now the couple are settling in to their new home in Haltwhistle – a spot roughly half way between the Freeman Hospital and the Cumberland Infirmary in Carlisle, to where the couple travelled for two years for treatment.

Eileen’s recovery will continue to be monitored there and the Rose’s are also closer to daughter Jane who lives just outside Carlisle.

“I can’t describe what a huge relief it was to finally get the news,” said Derek, a retired manager with a computer manufacturing company:  “As time went by, Eileen was needing treatment in Carlisle more often and we were eventually traveling there and back on a fortnightly basis.

“We knew that we would likely need to make continued visits to both hospitals after surgery and also wanted to be closer to Jane.  Centurion Park in Haltwhistle was perfectly located and we fell in love with the house as soon as we saw it but couldn’t make the move until our other house in Ingleton was sold.

“I didn’t think it was going to happen and then, as I was waiting to be collected to go to the hospital, I got a call to say that it had.  I just phoned my solicitor and the builder of the new house and told them to get on with things while I was in hospital.

“I have to say that Gary Anderson, the Homes Sales Executive at Centurion Park, did a great job for us and we were in our new home just seven weeks after the operation.  It is making life so much easier and Eileen is progressing well.”

And when Gary, who works for Linden Homes, told head office about the Rose’s story, the company made a £250 donation to the recently opened Institute of Transplantation department at the Freeman Hospital.

Said Stephen McCoy, Managing Director with Linden Homes’ parent company, Galliford Try Partnerships North:  “We are so pleased that things have worked out so well for Derek and Eileen and delighted that we have been able to help them in their quest to move nearer to family and the medical support they need.”

Pam Yanez, Directorate Manager of Urology and Renal Services at the Freeman Hospital’s Institute of Transplantation added: “The Institute of transplantation is grateful for the donation. Transplantation offers patients a better quality of life and staff hope that Eileen enjoys her improved health in her new home.”

-ENDS-

For further information, contact David Dobbie at Persuasion PR on 0845 071 0678 or via email at: david@persuasion-pr.com

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