Sir Rod Stewart said he wanted to “prove I’m not all mouth and trousers” as he visited his local NHS hospital where he paid for a day of scans for patients to help cut waiting lists. Arriving in a white Rolls-Royce on a drizzly February day, the 78-year-old star said “hi everyone” as he climbed from the car outside Princess Alexandra Hospital in Harlow, Essex.
The singer-songwriter last month called a live phone-in segment on Sky News and offered to pay for people to have hospital scans, having just returned from having a scan himself. 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.
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’.
