A WELL-KNOWN Cirencester sculptor has spoken movingly about a diagnosis of terminal cancer as he embarks on a mission to help others.

Rory Young wants to raise funds for the Oncology Centre at Cheltenham General Hospital where he was treated for liver cancer. 

“I got to my 68th birthday having hardly needed the NHS, and now when I needed it, it was right there for me.

“All the staff were so professional, attentive and caring.

"I had first class care, from the first visit to a young doctor at my surgery to the four hour operation and five days in Cheltenham General.

“I’m so grateful for their perceptive diagnosis of the urgency of the situation and for fast tracking me through the system - in 24 days from the doctor’s initial examination to being operated on.

“The staff at Cheltenham saved my life and I’m feeling very well at the moment.”

Although this is likely to be Rory's last summer, he has a positive outlook and says the fundraising makes him feel ‘so happy.'

He has declined to have further treatment.

Rory is auctioning off a replica model of a sculpture that he helped make for Christchurch Priory in Dorset. 

He created a 22-inch by 17.5-inch masked-doctor out of Lépine limestone from France as part of a £480,000 restoration project at the church during the lockdown winter of 2020-21. 

It took Rory and his colleague about four weeks to carve after being inspired by a photograph of architect Columba Cook's niece - a doctor working in an intensive care unit.

His full-scale polystyrene model of the head, painted to look exactly like the stone carving, will be auctioned off in a timed auction on July 9 with an estimated auction price of £4,000 to £6,000.

“I hope my model of this very unusual subject for a ‘gargoyle’ will be auctioned for a lot more than the estimate - wouldn't it be great to raise £10,000?" he said.

"I just had this inspiration. I could have sold it to the highest bidder privately but I wanted to see how much money I could raise for the Cheltenham Oncology Unit.

“My surgeon and cancer team are excited about the idea as they are currently improving the oncology unit."

Rory has spent his entire life in Cirencester and the south west, having graduated from King's College Taunton 55 years ago.

Bids must be submitted to rory.carpediem@gmail.com and the timed auction will close at 2pm on Saturday.