A dentist in Cornwall has decided to put the gold and metal teeth he has extracted to good use.
Don Weerasirie is the owner of Ocean Dental in Cornwall. He has owned the practice for 19 years and in that time he has extracted hundreds of teeth. Some of which have been partly or entirely made up of gold and other metals.
As many other dentists do, Don sells the metal onto a scrap metal company. But instead of spending the money on something like Christmas drinks, he decided to save the money. The fund was always intended to be donated at some point.
Earlier in 2022 Don’s mother, Margaret, was admitted to Royal Cornwall Hospitals NHS Trust's St Michael's Hospital and then to St Julia's Hospice.
Speaking to CornwallLive Don said, “The care she received was the best she's had. They cared for her when she had secondary breast cancer which had spread. It was absolutely exceptional, they really looked after her."
To show his gratitude Don decided to donate the money from the metal teeth to Cornwall Hospice Care. At the time the fund stood at £1,750 which Don matched to bring the final sum to £3,500.
"They came around with one of those huge cheque boards and collected the money. I just wanted to give something back," added Don.