A top North-East surgeon has launched a £1.5m appeal to help millions of patients in the land of his birth.

After 40 years of service as a brain surgeon in Newcastle, Robin Sengupta, has revealed his ambition to build a new neuro-surgery hospital in Calcutta, the sprawling Indian metropolis he left in the early 1960s.

Astonishingly, Mr Sengupta has already ploughed a total of £250,000 of his own money into his charitable work in India.

"If we can build this place it will be wonderful. The people of the North-East are very generous and I am sure they will help me," the surgeon said.

For years the surgeon has regularly flown out to Calcutta to give something back to his own people by treating needy patients.

Ten other Newcastle consultants, who work in the same neurosciences department, and six nurses have followed in his footsteps - paying their own air fares and working with Indian patients in their free time.

But now the 64-year-old specialist wants to build his own hospital to improve care for millions of poor people.

The vast majority of people in what is one of India's most under-developed areas cannot afford to pay for what is often life-saving treatment.

The surgeon, who reckons he has operated on around 20,000 patients during his long career at Newcastle General Hospital, is horrified at the lack of facilities for ordinary people in the Calcutta area. "The facilities for brain surgery are very poor and that hurts me very badly," said Mr Sengupta, who is due to retire on December 31 this year when he reaches the age of 65.

Mr Sengupta now has a core of Indian doctors in place, who have been trained in the North-East.

"We have a tremendous group of young doctors working there under very difficult circumstances. Now we need to get the hospital built as soon as possible," he said.

So far Mr Sengupta reckons he has spent £150,000 of his own money on helping patients in Calcutta.

He recently donated another £100,000 to kick-start the registered charity, which currently stands at £250,000.

*Donations should be made to Neurosciences Foundation Limited care of Ken Grey, 17 Grindon Close, Whitley Bay, Tyne and Wear NE25 9EB. For the full story of Mr Sengupta's remarkable four decades in the region read tomorrow's Health Page.