THE DAUGHTER of a well-known publican has bought a £4,000 computer game activity centre for sick children at a local hospital in memory of her father.

Julie Tipling, 46, who lives in Idle and works in the Aire Valley, donated funds to the children’s charity Starlight to provide the gift for the Spire Leeds Hospital’s children's unit.

The money was donated in memory of her late father Ronnie Thompson, who ran the Sun Hotel on Sunbridge Road, Bradford, for 15 years until his death from cancer in 2010 aged 62.

The Sun Hotel was the city's first openly gay pub and Mr Thompson often raised cash for HIV charities, said Mrs Tipling.

"We left after my dad became ill in 2009, but we had some really great times there," she said.

The married mother of two, who works as an activity coordinator at a residential nursing home in Nab Wood, Shipley, said the donation was made possible by her inheritance from her late father’s estate, which was split between herself, her sister and her brother.

"My father taught us to have care and compassion for those less fortunate than ourselves," Mrs Tipling said.

"We discussed his wishes before his death and he said he would like each of the family to donate a portion of our inheritance to a local charity of our choice. He worked extremely hard all of his life and did well for himself. "He wanted to give something back and raised funds for charities throughout his life.”

She chose Starlight because she wanted to do something to benefit children who are waiting for or recovering from surgery as her own daughter Holli, now 15, spent two months in hospital as a seven-year-old suffering from osteomyelitis, a bone infection which commonly affects the legs.

"This entertainment centre can bring so much joy to a child recovering from surgery. It’s a very long day in hospital for a child and for the parent also.

"When my daughter was in hospital and started to get better after having two operations on her leg, it would have been good to have something like this available to keep her entertained.”

Each Starlight Fun Centre, which costs around £4,000, comes loaded with an HD TV, Blu-ray player, a Nintendo Wii with four controllers, nun-chucks and steering wheels, a Nintendo Fitboard, four Nintendo DSi consoles and a library of films and games.

Alison Munro, Paediatric Lead Nurse at Spire Leeds Hospital said: "This is a fantastic donation and we are very grateful to Julie. We have a large paediatric clinic and the fun centre can also be wheeled round to outpatients for children waiting for appointments. It is proving to be very popular with our young patients."

Mrs Tipling also donated to two other charitable causes; one arranged through Starlight making it possible for a family of a terminally ill child to go on holiday together, and another to enable orphans in Africa to go to school.