DAVID Brown, a former aircraft engineer at Boscombe Down, had just left the Journal offices and was walking down the street with a copy of the Avon Advertiser, our sister paper, when he saw a story on the Stars Appeal Breast Cancer Unit campaign.

“Right across the top was the campaign banner and I thought I really want to give to that,” he said.

“I’m totally alone in the world – no family, nothing.

“I thought it would be a good idea to will my estate to some good cause.

“I can’t take it with me.

“I’m very pleased in my lifetime I will see the benefit given to other people and it will just go on in perpetuity.

“I will have the knowledge of good things being done.”

Mr Brown, who spent 25 years at Boscombe Down and 13 years at Middle Wallop, donated a considerable sum.

Born in Salisbury, he attended Bishop Wordsworth’s School.

The unit will be called the David A Brown unit.

It will also include a plaque in memory of Mr Brown’s mother and father, Frederick and Violet Ethel Brown, with the additional words of ‘May your God bless you’.

“It’s so everybody feels they belong,” he said.

Work began on the unit on Tuesday.