25 June 2008 - Bob Potter OBE, owner of Lakeside Country Club, donated £18,000 to the Urology department to allow it to purchase a state-of-the-art bipolar resectoscope. The new equipment allows surgeons to remove tumours using non-invasive methods. It also improves treatment by posing less risk of damage to the bladder wall and permitting better tissue sampling for diagnosis.

Frimley Park has received numerous gifts from Bob Potter over the years. In 2002, he donated £15,000 to enable the hospital to purchase a ureteroscope, helping the treatment of cancers and kidney stones without the need for open surgery.

Last month Frimley Park became one of just a few hospitals in the country to be equipped with a high-tech Faxitron Unit – a system which provides instant images of tumours. The hospital was able to purchase the equipment, after Mr Potter donated £52,000, raised at the 35th anniversary ball of his Lakeside Country Club at Frimley Green, last November.

Edward Palfrey, Medical Director and Consultant Urologist, at Frimley Park Hospital said: “Once again I find myself thanking Bob for his generosity. His continued support, not only of the Urology Department, but of the hospital allows us to keep at the forefront of medical care - enabling us to help others using the most up-to-date and effective equipment.”

Entrepreneur Bob Potter and his partner Barbara Leitch, who is responsible for co-ordinating Lakeside’s charity donations, were invited along to the hospital on Wednesday, 25th June, 2008 to meet cancer specialists and to receive a demonstration on how the equipment works. Mr Potter said: “Lakeside Country Club is dedicated to supporting many charities and organisations throughout the area, and we have supported Frimley Park Hospital since it was opened. Cancer treatment is an area that I’m particularly keen to support and it is important Frimley Park can have access to the best equipment available.”

About Lakeside
Top American girl group The Flirtations topped the bill at Lakeside’s opening night in November 1972 and since then the club has played host to some of the most famous names in show-business.

The club’s walls are adorned with photographs of the celebrities who have strutted their stuff on the Lakeside stage including Tony Bennett, Tom Jones, Engelbert Humperdinck, Cliff Richard, Diana Ross, Danny La Rue, Tommy Cooper, Jack Jones, Des O’Connor, Bob Monkhouse, Morecambe and Wise, Benny Hill, George Burns, Jim Davidson, Mike Reid, The Drifters, Russ Abbott, Lonnie Doneghan, Shirley Bassey, Freddie Starr, Alexander O’Neil, The Three Degrees, The Supremes, Bruce Forsythe, Tony Christie and Jethro. The list goes on and on.

Throughout its life-time Lakeside has helped raise millions of pounds for good causes with the club staging so many ‘Royal’ charity functions over the years that it became known as the ‘Royal’s nightclub’. Virtually every member of the Royal Family apart from The Queen has visited Lakeside. Former Prime Ministers Edward Heath, Margaret Thatcher and John Major were also visitors.

The original Lakeside was twice voted ‘Club of the Year’ before being destroyed by fire in 1978. Bob Potter rebuilt the venue in just nine months and the new Lakeside went on to also win the coveted ‘Club of the Year’ award on three occasions leading to Lakeside receiving a perpetual ‘Club of the Year’ trophy.

Today Lakeside is famous as the ‘Home of World Darts’ as it hosts the World Professional Darts Championships each year, broadcast by BBC TV, and now sponsored by Lakeside.

Bob Potter, honoured with an OBE in 1991, is a ‘Companion Rat’ of the prestigious showbusiness charity The Grand Order of Water Rats in recognition of his services to showbiz and charity for nearly 60 years.

June 25, 2008
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Media Contact: Paul Smith Associates +44 (0) 1420 22532