A retired Dundee geography teacher has donated £28,000 to NHS Tayside after her share investments were boosted by the post-Brexit stock market bounce.
Patricia Robertson visited Tayside Children’s Hospital at Ninewells on Thursday to hand over three cheques totalling £28,000.
She gave £14,000 to the children’s ward plus another £7,000 each for the oncology unit and medicine for the elderly.
The former geography teacher, who lives in Broughty Ferry, said careful stewardship of her savings and the stock market’s rally after the vote to leave the European Union had given her bank balance an unexpected boost.
Patricia, who taught at St Saviour’s High School and St John’s High School in Dundee said she decided to donate the money after being moved by a television documentary about a boy who had to travel 100 miles for kidney dialysis three times a week.
As the health board already had the dialysis machine the boy needed, she instead decided to donate the cash value to the children’s hospital.
And the generous 64-year-old then decided to double down by making a matching donation to be split between two other departments.
She said: “I have left enough money for myself and am very tax efficient with my savings and investments.
“I thought they would go down after Brexit but they went up instead so when I saw the boy on TV I though I could do something about it.
“I don’t have a lot of expenses and if you keep money in the bank it just sits there and doesn’t do anything.”
“I’ve got enough left for any emergencies.”
She added: “It’s very rewarding to be able to help folk.”
NHS Tayside chairman Professor John Connell said Patricia’s donation was “absolutely wonderful.”
“It came absolutely out of the blue,” he said.
“It is a stunning gesture – the money will be put to good use.”
Mr Connell said donations to the NHS are used to supplement the care it provides to patients.
“A lot of people give money if they have had a good experience and we do have an endowment fund,” he said.
“The money is used to support activity the NHS pays for, additional things like the free WiFi we now offer all patients.
“It would be difficult to justify that from central funding but we were able to pay for that from the endowment fund.”
NHS Tayside chief executive Lesley McLay added: “It is absolutely overwhelming and we are very grateful.”
