A retired Bradford businessman who was struck by a car while recovering from a double hip-operation in Ghana has died in hospital months after flying back to Bradford for better medical care.

Friends and family of Alex Therson-Cofie, who was 71, will say their final farewells at his funeral tomorrow at Nab Wood Cemetery, Shipley.

Mr Therson-Cofie died at Bradford Royal Infirmary on January 25 where he had been cared for since landing back at Leeds-Bradford Airport in October and ringing himself an ambulance.

His good friend Herbet Wuver, of the Pan African Arts and Cultural Group in Bradford, said Mr Therson-Cofie had been recovering well in the sunshine while staying with family in Ghana when he went out for a walk and was struck by the car.

“He spent sometime in hospital over there but wanted to come back to Bradford to be looked after here. He was well looked after in the BRI on Ward 24 and his friends are thankful for that. We all miss him greatly – he was like a grandpa-advisor to many. He was very much-loved.”

Mr Therson-Cofie had come to Bradford from Ghana in 1969 and using his experience of working in mental health care got a job at the former High Royds Hospital in Menston as a psychiatric nurse.

When it shut in the 1980s he bought a house in Wrose and ran a small care home for three residents until expanding his business and opening a bigger home in Heaton Grove.

After he closed that home, he ran a nursing recruitment agency in Shipley until he retired and went to live at Mary Seacole Court in Little Horton.

He had a great passion for nature, enjoying gardening and longing to keep his own chickens.

Mr Wuver said: “He knew everything there was to know about poultry farming, but never got to keep any of his own because he was worried they would disturb his neighbours.”

Mr Therson-Cofie’s funeral at 12.40pm will be followed by a burial at Charlestown cemetery in Baildon then a celebration of his life at the MAPA community centre in Coates Streets, off Manchester Road, Bradford.

He leaves a daughter, a son and two grandchildren.