Laurence Dollimore
A BRITISH reverend who was sent home to die by doctors is celebrating his FOURTH year of dodging the grim reaper.
Vergel-based expat Clive Read, 79, was suffering from pneumonia and an undiagnosed heart condition when he stopped responding to treatment at Denia Hospital in April 2015.
The father-of-one, originally from Sidcup, was sent home with ‘a few days to live’, but miraculously recovered ‘thanks to his wife and God’.
“My wife Ann was a saint and did everything that a loving and caring wife would do and more,” the holyman told the Olive Press.
In fact it was when his wife revealed that she would need a break from being his caregiver and that she planned to bring in a part-time helper that Read sprung into action – literally.
“That very same day I rolled out of bed, rolled onto my zimmer frame, took one step and got back into bed,” he recalled.
“The next day I took another step and the next day another, until one day Ann came back from work and found me walking around the living room.”
The reverend, who has lived in Alicante for more than 50 years, shocked doctors when he returned to the hospital for treatment eight months later.
“The doctor said to me, ‘I thought you died!’
“It was then that she told me she sent me home because she thought I would have preferred to have died in my own home.”
The expat, who also runs the Oasis Help Centre, in Javea, which helps expats settle in to life in Spain, added: “Now I feel fabulous and better than ever, bring on the 80th birthday in May.”
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