A DEVOTED husband who was so broken-hearted when his wife was taken into a care home, took on a labour of love to make it possible for her to visit their marital home again.

Roy Townsend, 88 couldn't bear to be away from his wife Pat who suffered a stroke last September and now resides at The Orchid Vale Care Home at Haydon End.

Pat 77, was left paralysed on one side of her body and she became wheelchair-bound meaning there was no way of getting her inside their terraced home in Alfred Street.

So Roy got out his toolbox and worked around the clock single-handedly on his knees, sawing, drilling and hammering in a desperate attempt to make a ramp for her wheelchair.

It was, he said, the actions of a man who is 'madly in love.'

And this week, fighting back the tears, Pat was finally, after almost a year, able to go back to the home they shared for 45 years where Roy had prepared a slap-up meal.

“I did it because I love her,” said sprightly pensioner Roy, who only left work at Multivac six years ago when he was 82.

“When you’ve been with someone for 45 years and suddenly they are taken away from you, you want to do everything you can to bring them back, if you can get them back," he said.

“I pulled her in and she started to cry and said ‘My home, my home.’"

Roy visits Pat, a former Post Office worker, every day and stays by her side for around six hours but he knew it was her dearest wish to come back to her old home, even if it was only for a short while.

Roy, whose brother is former footballer Don Townsend, the father of football pundit Andy Townsend, had previously tried to bring Pat home but when they realised her chair would not get inside they were forced to have a picnic outside.

And Roy said: “When she said she would like to visit her home. I said ‘Alright, I’ll build you a ramp,’” and with that he got to work.

Being a dab-hand at building, having made the staircase in their home and their back garden fence and extension among other things, Roy, a former Holy Rood pupil, was more than happy to accommodate to his wife’s request.

After the visit, Roy took Pat back to the home on the bus and yesterday an emotional Pat told the Adver: “He’s my rock. I couldn’t ask for better.”

The couple, who have five grandchildren and two great-grandchildren, married in Butterworth Street Methodist Church and are now looking forward to their daughter Louise Townsend, 42, marrying her fiancé Stuart McMillan in September.

Roy’s sister-in-law Sue Hambleton said of Roy: “He is such an inspiration.

"We all cried with happiness - Pat finally got her wish to come home.”

Roy says he finds it hard to bear being without Pat but at least he says: “Whenever she wants to come home she can now.”