A TERMINAL cancer sufferer has donated thousands of pounds of his life savings to enable a hospice to buy a new ambulance and two electronic beds for patients.

James McIlhargey, aged 72, has been connected with St Christopher’s Hospice for around 40 years after he was inspired by its founder Dame Cicely Saunders.

When Mr McIlhargey, originally from Glasgow, was diagnosed with lung cancer at the beginning of the year, he became a day patient who attends the hospice in Lawrie Park Road, Sydenham once a week.

His £55,000 donation is the biggest the hospice has received this year from any one individual.

Father-of-two Mr McIlhargey, who lives in Croydon, said: “It’s been on my mind all these years.

“The crunch came when all these greedy bankers were taking all my money.

“Why should I give it to them when I could give it to St Christopher’s?”

He added: “St Christopher’s has my whole heart and soul.

“The people and the staff here are wonderful.

“They’re so caring, they don’t give a monkeys who you are or what you are.

“In the months I’ve been coming here I could not fault them at all.

“The way they’ve looked after me you’d think I was the King of Scotland.”

St Christopher’s needs more than £14m each year to carry on providing free care to the sick and ill in the boroughs of Bromley, Lewisham, Croydon, Southwark and Lambeth.

A third of this comes from the NHS but to raise the remainder the hospice is dependent on charity events and the generosity of businesses and individuals such as Mr McIlhargey.

From the cash donated, £40,000 has been spent on a 16-seat vehicle and £15,000 on two electronic beds.

The hospice’s senior fundraising manager Paul Fennelly said: “This is a huge donation, the largest individual donation we have received this year. It’s extremely generous.

“The new ambulance will bring day patients to the hospice. It’s extremely important as a lot of patients struggle to get in.

“It’s a lot larger and can carry more people. It’s more flexible, for example seats can be removed. We have to carry a lot of people in wheelchairs.”

Mr Fennelly added: “The beds are incredibly flexible to cater for all different types of problems.

“Making patients comfortable is so important, not just by pain administration but physically how they are sitting or lying.”

Mr McIlhargey said of the reasons for donating the money: “I wanted to see the pleasure that it brought people. Good has come out of it and people will benefit from this.

“Everybody that comes in here are fortunate to have the whole staff welcoming you. They’ll sit down and talk to you all day.

“I want to do as much as I can for this place and the people in it because they’re all saints, the cooks, the cleaners, everybody.”