A HOSPITAL radio station has launched a fundraising campaign to refurbish its offices.

Radio Northwick Park is holding a number of events in the coming months, including live gigs, a boat party and an outside broadcast from the centre of Harrow in April.

It is hoping money raise will pay for renovation of its offices in the basement of the hospital, where it has been since it started in 1971.

Adrian Rammelt, who has been with the station for ten years, said: "The walls and ceilings in here have seen better days. Some of the features have been here since the 1970s.

"We have never really had the resources to change things, but we are hoping to raise enough money to really improve the whole station."

Run by volunteers, Radio Northwick Park broadcasts 24 hours a day throughout the week to patients in the hospital and to care homes in the borough.

In 2006, it started broadcasting over the internet and is now looking to expand its news coverage.

Vic Moont, programme controller, said: "People in hospital beds can get national news, regional news, but can't really get hold of local news.

"We want to keep them informed of events they can go to, in Harrow Arts Centre, the cinema and other events that are occurring in the Harrow area."

Every evening, volunteers from the station go on to the wards of the hospital and ask for song requests from patients for the 9pm to 10pm request show, a centrepiece of the station's evening schedule.

Mr Moont said: "The radio station is a lifeline for the patients.

"They come in here and we try to cheer them up and make their stay more worthwhile.

"What the hospital radio station does is administer love through music."

To get involved with the radio station, visit its website, www.radionorthwickpark.org.uk.

To request a song for a Northwick Park Hospital patient, call 0800 074 2828.