Forest chairman Nigel Doughty opens new hospital centres

Two new medical centres paid for with a £1m grant from the Doughty Family Foundation and bearing the name of former nurse Mercia Doughty are fitting tribute to her life and work, say her family.

Nottingham Forest chairman and son of Newark, Nigel Doughty returned to the town to unveil Newark Hospital's new pre-operative assessment centre and extended endoscopy centre.

His mother, Mrs Mercia Doughty was a nurse at the old Newark Hospital and transferred to the newer one where the two centres were opened to fanfare on Sunday.

After she retired, Mrs Doughty went on to serve the hospital and the Newark area as a member of the hospital's league of friends and her husband, Mr Ted Doughty, who still lives in Newark, remains its vice-chairman.

Mrs Doughty died in Beaumond House Community Hospice in May 2008 but her legacy lives on through the centres which began taking their first patients this week.

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