FORMER patients of a York family doctor who died of a brain tumour earlier this year have raised thousands of pounds in his memory.Popular GP Dr Douglas Reynolds was only 48 when he died.

He had retired from the Woodthorpe and Acomb Medical Practice, where he worked in the Severus Avenue and Moorcroft Road surgeries, because of ill-health a few months earlier, in October 1997.

Now locals have raised £4,000 in his memory to help terminally ill people at St Leonard's Hospice.

The Woodthorpe Gala, which raised the money, was the idea of gala secretary 61-year-old Shaun Moran, of Woodthorpe, who was a patient of Dr Reynolds for more than ten years.

He said: "Over the years Dr Reynolds achieved a reputation as a kind and caring doctor who was truly concerned about the physical and mental well-being of his patients.

"To this end we thought it appropriate that his contribution to the local community should be recognised by holding a thanksgiving gala day.

"He was so highly regarded that we wanted to do something involving the whole community.

"To us all, he was a good listener, very constructive and very helpful. If he thought a patient needed an hour he was the sort of doctor who would spend an hour with them."

The gala was the first to be held on Woodthorpe Green in years.

Nineteen former patients of Dr Reynolds - and a dog - raised £900 from an eight-mile sponsored walk from Woodthorpe to Appleton Roebuck, organised by Brian and Barbara Scarf and the Dick Turpin pub's casino night and race night raised a further £620 towards the total.

When the money is handed over to the hospice next week, residents of Woodthorpe and Acomb will not be the only ones thinking of Dr Reynolds. Fundraiser Janet Morley who will receive the cheque is one of his former patients.

She said: "It was very appropriate and fitting that the organisers chose St Leonard's where many of Dr Reynolds patients were cared for."

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