A FORMER healthcare assistant from Worcester ended up in the same mental health unit where he used to work after his wife was diagnosed with terminal cancer.

Paul George suffered severe depression after Janet, his wife of 25 years, was diagnosed with terminal cancer.

He is now backing the Cavell Nurses’ Trust, a charity based in Redditch which helps former medical staff and gave him a lifeline. It needs to raise £3 million over the next three years.

Mr George, aged 54, said his wife’s diagnosis was like being hit by a “ton of bricks.”

He said: “I became very depressed. I ended up admitted onto the same psychiatric ward where I used to work after I attempted suicide.”

Mr George was to spend nine months in Newtown Hospital in Worcester following his wife’s illness in 2009.

She was diagnosed with breast cancer, which was in her lymph glands but had also spread to the brain.

Mr George, who served in the Army for 16 years, left what is now the Mercian regiment to become a healthcare assistant 11 years ago. He was employed at Newtown and two rehabilitation centres. The father-of-three said: “It was hard being looked after by the people I used to work with. I was there for nine months, then Janet said ‘I need you to come home’, so I discharged myself and looked after her for the last six months of her life.”

Mrs George died on August 1, 2010, at the age of 55, leaving him to care for their sons, now aged 22 and 20, and a daughter, now 18.

Mr George was diagnosed with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) around the same time, which left him needing an inhaler. In the last year, he suffered a small stroke and has been in hospital for three bouts of pneumonia. A fire at his home nearly a year ago destroyed furniture and carpets.

The Cavell Nurses’ Trust stepped in with a £250 grant towards a three-piece suite and further payments of £350 for new carpets and £100 for additional furniture.

Cavell Nurses’ Trust was founded in 1917. Over the last five years the charity has given more than £2.5 million to help UK nurses, retired nurses, health care assistants and student nurses.