LOATHED by moles but loved by thousands of people he befriended through hospital visiting, tributes have been paid to renowned volunteer Stuart Robinson who has died at the age of 90.

Mr Robinson, from Brompton, near Northallerton, was so well known by patients past and present at the Friarage Hospital he was given a unique award by the South Tees Hospital Trust after visiting more than 25,000 people in a 30 year career.

He was also a celebrity mole catcher, known throughout the area as the best man to call whether it was trouble with farmland or flower beds.

In a tribute read at Mr Robinson’s funeral, his daughter Margaret Ashbridge and son Tony said: "People said if Stuart couldn’t catch them nobody could. He often had phone calls from panicking gardeners who had moles rooting up their beautiful lawns, flowers or vegetable patch pleading for help.

"Through his years of observing the ways of the mole he learnt the best way to catch them, It is said that when he retired all the moles rejoiced and there was a population explosion."

But it was Mr Robinson’s skill with people that earned him his most treasured accolade. In his 20s he had lost a kidney which Mrs Ashbridge said prompted many to think he would not have long in this world.

“How wrong that prediction turned out to be," she said.

"He had an inner strength which pulled him through and over time. He had other operations and stays in hospital, so he knew what it was like to be a patient.

“And so it was that in the late 1970s he began hospital visiting. At first, he visited folk that he knew and then began speaking to others who didn’t have visitors..

“He reached a point where he was at the Friarage three nights a week for up to three hours at a time. He met many,many people and he kept notebooks in which he wrote the names of everybody he had visited."

Rev Rodney Breckon from Mr Robinson’s church, the New Life Church in Northallerton organised the special presentation with the South Tees Hospital Trust to mark his devotion in 2006 and also carried out the funeral and thanksgiving service for his life.

“Even when he was a patient there himself he still did his rounds, wearing dressing gown and slippers," he said.

"The idea for honouring Stuart came to me during a funeral. Why is it that we only honour people and speak of what they have done when they are gone?

"I remember hearing a song while attending a funeral in America many years ago, Give me my flowers while I yet live.

"Stuart truly deserved that recognition. He would help anyone and seemed to me, to be always busily going off to this chapel or that, helping and supporting wherever he could."