THE husband of a cancer patient who is receiving palliative care at East Lothian Community Hospital was able to sing her Happy Birthday after he was allowed a rare visit.

Bill Hudson has spoken of his anguish at being separated from wife Carol after NHS Lothian stopped visits to the hospital under lockdown.

He battled to be allowed to visit his wife, who was transferred to the hospital weeks before lockdown began from a hospice.

And this week he was allowed to visit the hospital and play her songs through her window.

Musician Bill said: "I performed three songs outside her window.

"A special moment supercharged by the special natural acoustics. Don’t know what the other patients thought, but Mrs H loved it."

Carol, who turned 56 on Tuesday, from Gullane, has been battling cancer for six years and is receiving care for a second inoperable tumour at the hospital.

Bill appealed to hospital bosses to find a way for him to see his wife, who  worked as a physiotherapist assistant at the former Roodlands Hospital in Haddington, after being denied access for weeks.

This month they relented allowing visits under strict restrictions.

He was able to see Carol in the hospital's sanctuary room last week and headed to the hospital this week to serenade her through her window.

Bill said: "It is all about making sure Carol's life is as full and happy as it can be which is why contact is so vital.

"I have to stand two metres away and we can't touch, we can't hold hands, but I can sing to her."

Carol, who has two sons, Kieran, 23, and Connor, 25, has raised hundreds of pounds for Maggie’s Centres despite her condition over the last few years by taking part in fundraising Culture Crawls in Edinburgh.

When she took part in the sponsored event two years ago she spoke of her drive to support Maggie’s, which had helped her when she was diagnosed with her tumours despite her condition.

Speaking about her diagnosis at the time, Carol told the Courier: “You just have to get on with it.

“There are plenty of other people who are going through awful things in this world.

“You get on with it and there are plenty of reasons to be getting up each day and be smiling.”