A woman who knows from personal experience the value of a casualty department has backed the campaign to save Huddersfield's A&E.

Judith Ford, wife of stroke patient Richard Ford, admits she is “scared for the wellbeing and safety” of people if Huddersfield Royal Infirmary loses its A&E services.

Judith’s husband Richard is fighting back after a brain stem stroke in 2012 left him completely paralysed.

The father of three, of Holmbridge, was left ‘locked in’ after the severe stroke but has confounded doctors with his powers of recovery.

The family featured in a moving special DIY SOS programme in which their home was adapted and improved by an army of volunteers.

Judith said: “Three and a half years ago I had to phone 999 when my husband collapsed at home in Holmbridge. We seemed to wait an age for an ambulance... some 40 minutes.

“When the ambulance arrived it was a Bradford crew who had come from Halifax as no other units were available. We were blue lighted to HRI, after a couple of hours my husband was then transported to Leeds where he spent the next nine months.

“My husband had endured a massive brain stem stroke and every minute untreated meant another minute where his brain was starved of oxygen.

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“We were never given an option of which A&E we wanted to go to, I’m not sure that you ever would be given a choice when an ambulance is whizzing you off to hospital so the fact that Barnsley might be an option for some residents leaves me no reassurances at all.

“I am honestly scared for the well being and safety of my own family and that of other local residents in our huge university town if our A&E was to close.

“How on earth would other A&E depts cope with the influx of extra patients to treat?

Lives are being gambled with, people will die as a result of the closure if it goes ahead.”