Cranford pensioner Abdul Mirza has devoted his life to improving health care for the poor in his home country of Pakistan.

Now he needs the help of the Chronicle readers to raise £100,000 to get his dreams for a kidney hospital up and running.

The 72-year-old from Berkley Way, Cranford, set up the Rehmat Foundation charity project in 2001, and since then, thousands of the poorest families from his home town of Jhelum have benefited from the free medical care it has provided.

Mr Mirza's latest project is his most ambitious yet, setting up a Kidney Care Centre providing free life saving dialysis treatment, currently not available in the surrounding area for many miles.

The retired business man told the Chronicle: “People are dying because they have no source of income and they can not travel to the hospital in Islambad 70 miles away.

“We have managed to complete one floor of the hospital on land kindly donated by a local business man and have four kidney dialysis machines, however we need to pay for these machines and further equipment and that's where we hope people can help.”

In July the charity also hope to start work on a second floor where they can create a medical department for other types of illnesses, however they need a further £50,000 to fund these plans.

“We need X-Ray machines, ultrasound machines, more kidney dialysis machines, a laboratory and of course money for day to day running costs and staff, in total this comes to around £100,000,” said Mr Mirza.

“The local community is desperate to use the new facilities, and we are appealing to the people of Hounslow to help.”

For information on how to make a donation to the Rehmat Foundation please visit www.rehmatfoundation.com or phone 0870 609 1502.