MEN dressed as women have added more than £3,000 to the pot that can be spent improving services at Ludlow Hospital.

Eleven sturdy lads masquerading as nursing staff, led by Gary Walters of Ludlow Brewing Company, raised £2,856.91 for the Hospital League of Friends.

Further receipts including Gift Aid take the final amount to over £3,000.

The traditional bed push was originally the idea of Howard Watkins, lifetime president of the league, and the event now takes place annually in his memory.

Howard’s son, Mark, also took part accompanied by Bill Wilson, Stuart Cadwallader, Ricky Peers, Adam Griffiths, Tom Glyn-Jones, Simon Morgan, Ben Whitmarsh, Mark Hiles and Michael Griffiths.

Starting the day at the Ludlow Brewery the crew were fortified with bacon sandwiches provided by Griffiths the butchers of Bull Ring Ludlow.

“It is vital that we keep the hospital in the public eye and this event certainly does that, as well as generating significant income to enable us to purchase state of the art equipment for treating local residents closer to home,” said Peter Corfield, chairman of the Ludlow Hospital League of Friends.

“This year alone we have provided an ultrasound scanner costing £60,000 and visual field test equipment and a retinopathy camera are due to be delivered shortly at a further cost of £20,000.

“Although still called the “bed push” we regrettably no longer push a bed through the streets as we have, in recent years, upgraded all our hospital beds to the latest electronic profiling standard – and they are rather delicate (and expensive) to trundle through the pot-holes and over the kerbs!

“We are extremely grateful to Gary and the team for their outstanding efforts, and for the support of Carvell’s Tea shop in providing a collecting and counting base.

“And, of course, we must pay tribute to the fantastic generosity of the public, who made the whole event worthwhile.”