Bedford Hospital will say thanks a million – or rather six million – when its champion fundraiser retires next month.

Brian Woodrow is stepping down as chairman of Bedford Hospitals Charity at the age of 70, after helping to raise £6 million over the last 20 years.

But while he has become the public face of the charity, as Mr Woodrow tells it he became involved almost by accident.

He said: "It was 20 years ago, I was sitting at my desk at home when someone called me about the living conditions of student nurses at the hospital.

"Their accommodation hadn't been upgraded since it was built in the 1920s, and there was a group of people who got together because they wanted something done about it.

"I was retiring from my job at that point, so I went to the meeting and ended up as chairman of the charity. And that £400,000 was probably the hardest fundraising campaign we ever had."

Unsurprisingly, Mr Woodrow, who has lived in Bedfordshire for 30 years and now resides in Milton Ernest, cited the eight-year campaign to create the Primrose Unit, which opened in 2003, as the charity's crowning achievement. Backed by the Times & Citizen, that meant raising £2.15 million, in addition to £500,000 from Macmillan Cancer Support.

But despite all the money raised, Mr Woodrow said he was equally proud that the charity's costs accounted for a remarkably low proportion of its income – less than 0.35 per cent in the last financial year.

He said: "I am very, very proud of Primrose. Bedford would not have had a cancer unit if we had not said to the hospital: 'We are going to build one.' We even paid for the first two nurses to be trained in chemotherapy and one of those, Anne Deary, is now in charge of the unit.

"When we were told it would need £2 million, we knew that we were just a small group of amateurs and wondered how we would do it. But I was told by Macmillan that what we ended up with was one of the biggest and the best units of its type in the country.

"Because we raised the money ourselves, we could get the best quality, not the standard NHS quality, and when the hospital told us what was needed we put the resources to one side to provide it.

"Even the name 'Primrose' came from a committee meeting. We were discussing ideas, and someone suggested that. A primrose is a spring flower, and a symbol of hope. It was an inspired choice and it just stuck."

If a new constitution is approved, Mr Woodrow will now become chairman of the Bedford Hospitals Charity trustees, and will work with three non-executive trustees on financial and legal matters.

Jayne Beard will take over his current role of chairman of the executive committee.

He said: "I will be stepping back, but I won't be stepping away completely. I have had the good luck to work with some tremendous, hard-working and dedicated people over the last 20 years and I don't doubt that the charity will go from strength to strength in years to come.

"The charity is not about one person. It is about so many people contributing, not just the committee but all those who give their time or their money, and businesses giving us gifts in kind.

"I am simply happy to have done something useful."

A special farewell dinner for Mr Woodrow takes place at Bedford Rugby Club on June 6.

****

A golf day in aid of the Bedford Hospitals Charity still has spaces for a handful of teams, at the time of writing.

The event, at Bedfordshire Golf Club in Stagsden, will take place on Thursday, June 19, and has proven a popular fixture in the calendar.

The £200 entry fee for a four-person team includes all green fees, coffee and sandwiches on arrival, dinner and a prize-giving reception plus gifts.

Hole sponsorship is £80 per tee or green, and £40 per fairway. And there are also opportunities for anyone who wants to offer prizes for the raffle, or sponsor the wine, the catering or the awards for the longest drive and nearest the pin.

Contact Brian Woodrow for further details on 01234 824323.