A BIG-HEARTED rock band is putting on a charity gig after being left touched by the plight of a pensioner who battled back from a coma.

Pat Whalley suffered a heart attack at her home in March and spent the next 24 hours on the critical list with her family by her bedside.

For the next two months Pat, who was a home help throughout the Blackburn area for 18 years, was in a coma at Queen's Park Hospital's Rehabilitation Unit.

The 62-year-old mother-of-two is now back at her Brownhill Road home, Blackburn, where she requires round-the-clock care. Husband Don, 65, has had to retire from his building business and carers visit the home on a daily basis.

Pat's family were so impressed with the care she received that they wanted to express their gratitude, leading to Hyndburn band Numnuts -- which includes family friend Mick Wake on drums -- to play a concert to raise funds for the ward.

Don said: "Hospitals sometimes come in for a lot of stick, but all the staff at Queen's Park Hospital, and Blackburn Infirmary were brilliant.

"What makes a hospital is the people and I can never thank them enough for what they have done. And Mick helping out with the gig is great. We hope we can raise as much as we can for the hospital."

Mick, of Parker Street, Rishton, said: "I have known Don and Pat for 20 years and have practically grown up with them. What happened to Pat really affected me and I just wanted to do something to help them and the hospital."

Mick, 36, has already raised £300 for the hospital through gathering donations from his colleagues in the building industry. At the gig next Friday, at the Adelphi pub, in Accrington, Mick and the band hope to raise another couple of hundred pounds. Entrance is free and donations will be requested. There will also be a raffle to raise money for Don and Pat. Don said Pat was an active happy woman when the heart attack struck. Today her movements are restricted to the minimum.

He said: "It is something that will stay with me for the rest of my life. She was sitting there laughing when her eyes just went white. Her brain was starved of oxygen and she went straight into the Intensive Care Unit at the infirmary.

"We thought it was touch-and-go but you can see improvements in her all the time now."