Sir Rod Stewart follows up on cancer scans pledge in Essex
The star's been visiting the Princess Alexandra Hospital in Harlow
Last updated 24th Feb 2023
Rod Stewart has followed through with a promise he made and paid for the public to have scans at his local NHS hospital in Essex.
The singer, who arrived at the Princess Alexandra Hospital in Harlow in a white Rolls-Royce, said he wanted to "prove I'm not all mouth and trousers"
Sir Rod called a Sky News phone-in about the state of the NHS last month, and offered to intervene because he was upset about rising waiting lists.
Wearing a cream roll-neck jumper, knee-length coat, black trousers and dark blue trainers, he shook hands with a series of NHS staff outside a mobile MRI scanning unit and posed for photographs.
He joked "let's all have a sing-song" and signed his autograph for a fan, before speaking to reporters.
Sir Rod's donation is covering a day of scans for patients, which are being carried out at private healthcare firm InHealth's mobile MRI scanning unit which is currently positioned at the hospital site.
"I thought this is a terrible injustice"
Explaining how he came to pay for a day of scans at his local hospital, Sir Rod said: "I had just come from my scan in a private clinic near Harley Street.
"I walked in and said, 'I'm terribly sorry I'm half hour late'.
"They said, 'don't worry, there's hardly anybody in here today'.
"There were eight people with hardly anything to do.
"Then I thought this is a terrible injustice, so here we are."
He said he was "here not to talk about politics, please, because otherwise it overshadows what we're trying to do".
"I want to prove I'm not all mouth and trousers"
Sir Rod, who has had six number one hits in the UK charts, said he would like to pay for scans elsewhere too.
"If this is a big success, which I think it will be, I'd like to do it in Belfast, Dublin, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Manchester, and just keep it going, and hope some other people follow me," he said.
"Because I want to prove I'm not all mouth and trousers and that's why I'm here to prove that I followed through with it, ok folks."
He added: "There must be enough money in the coffers to pay up for these nurses - only two years ago we were clapping and now...
"Bless them, they work so hard, salt of the earth."