READERS have pledged more than £2,600 from their own pockets to keep hopes of a public inquiry into the Richard Neale scandal alive.

The campaign group representing 250 victims of the North Yorkshire surgeon needs to raise £10,000 to continue their legal fight.

After losing a High Court bid for a full public inquiry, the campaigners appealed for help through The Northern Echo.

Eight readers pledged money, ranging from two people who each said they would put up £1,000 each, to a pensioner who said he wanted to contribute £25. By mid-afternoon yesterday, the amount pledged stood at £2,625. One reader, who pledged £100, said: "I only wish I could give more."

Campaigners believe a full public inquiry is the only way to get at the facts behind Mr Neale's chequered career, which left 250 women injured before he was struck off - for the second time in his life - in July 2000.

The Friarage Hospital surgeon was given a job and promoted despite having been struck off in Canada after two patients died.

Encouraged by the response so far, the campaign group has asked for readers to make one last push.

Six weeks ago, its legal team mounted a High Court action to win a judicial review.

This would have forced the Department of Health to throw open its investigation to the Press.

But the bid failed, leaving the campaign group with one last chance - an approach to the Court of Appeal.

Sheila Wright-Hogeland, the campaign group founder who claims she was left sterile after bungled treatment by Mr Neale, has already spent more than £100,000 of her own money on the campaign.

Last night she said: "It is lovely to know people care desperately about justice. They want to know the truth."

* To make a pledge or donation ring (01751) 432296