Millionaire donates it all to charity

A self-made multi-millionaire is selling his luxury hotel and donating the proceeds to charity

Business tycoon Brian Burnie, 64, was brought up in a Newcastle terraced home and started his working life aged 15.

But the father-of-three wants to die penniless and he hopes other people will follow his example.

He has ploughed more than £16 million, and 14 years, into transforming 191-year-old Doxford Hall, near Alnwick in Northumberland, into one of the country's most luxurious hotels.

He is only a matter of weeks from completing the project, which will be sold to fund a Marie Curie/Macmillan cancer nurse for north Northumberland and a set of vehicles to take cancer patients to and from hospital.

Mr Burnie said: "It would be nice to think this will mushroom across the country. I would love to see other people following what we are doing. I really hope they do."

"My wife thinks I'm mad - I must have the biggest heart in the world trapped in an old man's body."

The effects of cancer were brought home to the couple four years ago when Mrs Burnie, 60, contracted breast cancer.

She made a full recovery and, far from living a grand lifestyle, she looks after their Doxford House home and works three days a week at Barter Books in Alnwick.

Mr Burnie said he had always wanted to use the Hall to raise money for cancer charities, but he decided to bring his plans forward when the hotel was redeveloped.

"Our masterplan was always to fund a cancer nurse for North Northumberland, I have just decided it would be an ideal opportunity to put everything on the market and realise the cash.

"We are just bringing forward everything we planned, because I didn't want to wait until I was 70 or 80 before it happened."