Hospital staff have received same anonymous Christmas card every year since 1960
A GRATEFUL former patient has sent hospital staff at a ward where he was once treated an anonymous Christmas card every year since 1960.
Hospital staff have received same anonymous Christmas card every year since 1960
Stamford Hospital in Lincolnshire said the card appeared “every year without fail” on the matron's desk, with the same message of thanks.
Hospital matron Sue Brooks, 58, has worked at the hospital for nine years and said the card had been a “great mystery” for 57 years.
She said: “It would be great to find who is still so grateful after all these years.
“People who worked here before me said its been coming here since 1960, always addressed to a ward that we used to have here.
Stamford Hospital said the card appeared 'every year without fail'
This year's card from a mystery man, to Stamford Hospital in Lincolnshire
It would be great to find who is still so grateful after all these years
“I'd love to have the person back, show them around the hospital, they could have tea with the matron of the ward.”
The card is addressed to nursing staff at the now disused Exeter Ward and has a postal mark for the South East Anglia Mail Centre in Chelmsford, Essex.
Sue, from Lincolnshire, said: “Three or four years ago, I started collecting the cards and we made a really big effort to find out who the person was, it's such a lovely story.
The now disused Exeter Ward at Stamford Hospital in Lincolnshire
“It must have been something very traumatic for them to still keep sending cards- I just feel so sad that one year I'm not going to get one and I'll know why!
“It's been coming here ever since one year old!”
The North West Anglia NHS Foundation Trust said the “once busy” Exeter Ward was an all-male ward, so staff know the patient is a male.
In the card, he said he was a “grateful” patient in 1960 and was “still going strong”.