Tributes have been paid to a Bradford doctor after he lost his long battle against cancer.

Today Rita King, pictured, 59, wife of Dr Andrew King, said: "He was a very strong and determined man, a true Yorkshire man. If anyone wanted to live he did but, in the end, he realised that he could not take any more."

Now his family, including sons Edward, 33, Alistair, 28 and Martin, 25, have requested donations in his memory should be made to the Telegraph & Argus Bradford Can...Cancer Research Appeal.

Mrs King, of Bingley, said: "Research into this disease is so important. The ideas are there but the money isn't."

Dr King, 59, who was born in Skipton, and worked at St Luke's Hospital in Bradford as a chest physician, was diagnosed with cancer of the jaw in 1995, which spread to his glands.

He had already retired from his job at St Luke's in 1992 following a quadruple heart by-pass operation.

He remained mentally active but his physical condition began to deteriorate this year and he was admitted to hospital with pneumonia. After a short time at home he was admitted to ward 15 at Bradford Royal Infirmary where he died on Tuesday, October 30.

Colleague Dr Duncan Newton, chairman of medical staff at Bradford Hospitals NHS Trust, said: "Dr King was very popular with his patients who had a high affection for him.

"He had a brilliant career at the University of Edinburgh and received a gold medal for his BSC degree physiology thesis.

"He was a lecturer in the very distinguished university department of respiratory medicine at the University of Edinburgh for five years.

"We were fortunate that he chose to come back to his home area and, after a brief period in Leeds, he took up a consultant post in Bradford."

Andrew will be received into Sacred Heart Church, Crow Nest Road, Bingley, tomorrow at 6.30pm prior to Requiem Mass on Wednesday at 11am, followed by cremation at Nab Wood Crematorium, Shipley.