DEVOTED father Bob Golightly had everything to live for.

At 53, the deputy head-,teacher at Staindrop Comprehensive School, County Durham, still enjoyed training at the gym and rarely drank alcohol.

He was also a fanatical Sunderland FC supporter, who liked nothing more than taking his daughter, Kirsty, to the Stadium of Light.

His love of the sport was broad enough for him to travel to London last Friday for Darlington's promotion clash against Peterborough.

But he never got to see the match. Bob collapsed and died from a heart attack in Kirsty's arms as he waited to board a train to Wembley.

Yesterday, Bob's family, who live in Bishop Auckland, heard Health Secretary Alan Milburn say the Government is considering radical steps to effectively abolish waiting lists.

They, however, are still trying to understand why he had to die eight months after a surgeon told him he needed a triple heart bypass.

That has left the family with a burning anger at a health care system that has deprived them of a loving father and husband.

But the timing of Bob's death has only served to highlight the fact that his story is, sadly, far from unique.

Today marks the first anniversary of the death of Ian Weir, a father-of-two, from Darlington, who died after waiting seven months to see a heart specialist.

That tragedy sparked The Northern Echo's A Chance to Live campaign, which sparked a national debate about heart operation waiting times, prompting ministers into action.

The Government pledged to spend an extra £50m on heart surgery straightaway in order to start tackling the problem.

Yesterday, Bob's widow, Ann, and daughters, Kirsty, 20, and Nicola, 31, were united in their anger over what has happened to their family.

Kirsty, pledging her support to the A Chance to Live campaign, said: "The Government's way to reduce waiting lists is to let people die. If we can prevent another girl from seeing her father die, it will be worth it."

Ann said: "The Government has no right to issue platitudes. They obviously cannot deliver what they preach and what they say is not what is happening in practice."

The family are calling for an investigation. They say they ruled out paying for a private operation on the advice of staff at South Cleveland Hospital, in Middlesbrough.

Ann added: "Bob was told that his condition was stable, and that if anyone else was more urgent his operation would be put back. He was told it wasn't life threatening."

Last night, Adrian Davies, chief of service for the cardiothoracic unit at South Cleveland Hospital, said: "It is a great shame people have to wait for heart surgery at all, and anyone who dies on the waiting list is a tragedy."

It is estimated about 600 people out of 1,400 have to wait for open-heart operations at the unit each year. Dr Davies admitted some have to wait more than a year, describing this situation as "distressing and frustrating for surgeons".

He said: "New patients are coming along as urgent and emergency cases almost every day and they have to be done first. Obviously this has a knock-on effect on the waiting list and those patients perceived to be less urgent or not as 'high risk' have to wait longer.

"We simply cannot do any more. We are the most efficient unit in the country but are at full capacity.

"Hopefully in time this problem will not occur.

"The National Service Framework for cardiology has set out new guidelines and ultimately no-one should wait more than three months for bypass surgery."

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