A RADIO station for hospital patients is rounding off its 50th birthday celebrations with a fundraising quiz night featuring a well-known BBC personality.

Alan Dedicoat, who is the voice of the Lottery Balls and Strictly Come Dancing, as well as a BBC Radio 2 newsreader, is coming to York in January to host the event for York Hospital Radio.

The event is at York Hospital Social Club on White Cross Road, off Haxby Road, on Friday, January 9 at 7.30 pm.

It will be a team quiz, with a maximum of five people per team, and entry is £10 each, including a Quiz Sheet and pie and pea supper.

Ian Clennan, chairman of York Hospital Radio, who has been with the station since 2002, said: “We are aiming to finish the celebrations for our half century in style, with a night which will be great fun for all quiz fanatics, and which will hopefully help us to raise much-needed funds as well.

Alan Dedicoat – patron of York Hospital Radio - hosts very successful Quiz Nights in Bournemouth regularly, and we are delighted and honoured that he is bringing the event to York.

“I hope that lots of teams of friends and work colleagues will come and take part and support us, while having a great night!! Imagine the pride of being announced as the winners by the great voice of none other than Alan Dedicoat!”

York Hospital Radio is a registered charity, and broadcasts 24 hours a day, seven days a week, to the York Hospital, with a mixture of music shows, requests, football commentaries from Bootham Crescent, live broadcasts from the stage of York Theatre Royal, a range of outside broadcasts from other theatres and concert venues, and information designed to help patients during their stay in hospital.

It began broadcasting in January 1964 and is run entirely by volunteers who do everything from presenting shows to making ward visits to ask patients for requests, and fundraising.

Former volunteers include BBC Look North presenter Harry Gration and BBC Radio York’s Ricky Marshall.

The very first show was broadcast at Naburn and Fulford Maternity Hospitals on January 26, 1964, by members of the Acomb Community Tape Recording Club and also played through a tape machine at Acomb Hospital. It took 12 hours to record and the show lasted just 45 minutes.

For quiz night tickets email studio@yorkhospitalradio.com or call York Hospital Radio on 01904 628800.