A ROTARIAN was awarded a fellowship for his vital work in helping to secure funding for the Great Western Hospital’s new radiotherapy unit. 

David Pratt from Haydon Wick received one of the Rotary’s highest honours for his outstanding contribution in obtaining a grant for GWH’s charity Brighter Futures. 

Overall, Rotary clubs of Swindon and Wiltshire have donated £369,000 to support the project. 

Brighter Futures’ appeal helped raise £2.9m to help kit out the centre, with the build is expected to be completed by the end of 2021. 

David wrote a Global Grant application in 2018 with the support of fellow Rotarians, including Peter Hayman and Peter Wells, which secured the funding. 

And the 79-year-old has now been rewarded with the Paul Harris Fellowship.

David, who was diagnosed with early-stage dementia last year, said: “I am shocked and pleasantly surprised. It lifted my spirits, and I am proud of my achievements. I am very grateful to Rotary for the acknowledgements, it means a lot to me.”

David was elected president of Old Town Rotary in 2011 and the Rotary Club of Swindon in 2019. 

His wife Christine said: “Swindon really needed to have a unit at GWH, so the community can benefit from the radiotherapy when it opens in 2022. 

“When he realised that the hospital was working on this project, Rotary decided that it was something they wanted to be part of. 

“And my husband is very good at writing business plans. It was a document expressing the justification, the need, and the reasons for seeking support and funding for GWH.

“It was a long process, it was a lot of hours that David put in, he did a lot of research. He was totally committed to it."

She added: “Whilst the work David did writing up the business plan for the Global Grant may have been one of his last significant projects, it is by far amongst his finest work. 

Christine said her husband was feeling poorly for most of last year and was diagnosed with his condition in September time. 

She said: “He collapsed four or five times through 2020 and had to be admitted to hospital. 

“He struggles to remember things and get the correct name for things. 

“When they awarded him the fellowship, he was very confused, they may not have picked it up but as his wife I did pick up, he was very confused, he didn’t know what it was for. 

“And after the Rotarians had left, I explained to him, and reminded him what he had done and then he remembered.”

The unit is being built in the grounds of the hospital’s Marlborough Road site. 
It is being overseen and run by Oxford University Hospitals NHS Trust 

On its website Brighter Futures said: “It was an incredible three-and-a-half years of fundraising for Brighter Futures that has seen thousands of local people across Swindon and surrounding communities come together and do some truly amazing things for the charity.

“The development of a local radiotherapy service for cancer patients diagnosed at Great Western Hospital will mean over 13,000 patient journeys for radiotherapy treatment will be significantly shorter every year.”