Tender loving care at Shipley residential home Neville Grange has helped a stroke victim defy doctors and stand on his own two feet.

Taxi-driver Pat Murphy suffered a major stroke last winter while driving his cab through snowy streets and was told at Airedale Hospital he would not walk again.

“The phrase used was I had ‘no potential’ to walk again,” said Mr Murphy, 65.

Bed-ridden and hampered by a broken wrist and cracked ribs after a fall in Bradford Royal Infirmary, the future looked uncertain for Mr Murphy, previously head greenkeeper at Shipley Golf Club for 35 years.

“But luckily my wife Linda managed to get me into Neville Grange – which turned everything around,” Mr Murphy said.

The Council-run home off Bradford Road, Saltaire, welcomed him in six months ago and now he is one of its last residents as it prepares for closure on November 17.

It is shutting as part of plans to create four ‘Extra Care’ facilities in the district under Bradford Council’s new ‘Great Places to Grow Old’ strategy.

“Since I got here it has been tender, loving care – absolutely amazing,” said grandfather-of-11 Mr Murphy.

“It’s a real shame it has to close. The nurses, carers and physiotherapy are brilliant.” He is now able to walk with a stick unaided and is confident of regaining full use of his left arm, which was left frozen by the stroke.

Mr Murphy told of his gratitude yesterday as he prepared to head home to Cornwall Road, Bingley.

His wife Linda, 65, added her thanks to Neville Grange, whose closure was opposed by many people: “Neville Grange has been superb in how it’s helped Pat recover, it’s the atmosphere there that really helped him,” she said. “In my view it’s a great pity that such a succesful team of people is being broken up.”

Dean Roberts, service manager with the Council’s adult and community services unit, said: “We are really pleased that Mr Murphy has had a positive experience at Neville Grange and thank him for acknowledging the team in supporting him in his recovery.”