HE's 85 and lives in London - but Stan Owen has been making regular pilgrimages to Great Budworth to collect water from a 19th century pump.

No one knows where the water goes to, but at one time the pump used to be the only source of water supply in the village along with a pump house.

Stan, who was born in Lostock Gralam and lived around Northwich until he was 35 working at ICI, remembers people queuing up to fill bottles of the water for its pure qualities.

He became seriously ill in 1996 and doctors didn't know what was wrong with him.

"At first they thought it was pneumonia. I was taken into hospital and tests were carried out," said Stan.

Doctors then discovered that his blood platelet count, which should have been around 150, was only nine.

His outlook was extremely bleak but Stan remembered the pump and started a regular journey from Boreham Wood to Great Budworth, filling bottles with gallons of water to take back to London.

"The doctors told me they could do nothing for me. I thought the water couldn't do me any harm," said Stan.

"I remember when I used to live in Northwich 75 years ago there was a little boy who was dying of tuberculosis and it was the only water that could quench his thirst, so I thought I would try it."

Amazingly, when Stan went back to see his doctor for his regular tests after drinking the water, his platelet count had started to rise.

"They didn't believe me when I told them about the water so I told them I would stop drinking it for six months and see what happened," said Stan.

As soon as he stopped drinking the water the levels went down again and similarly rose again when he drank the water.

They stabilised at 152.

Unfortunately for Stanley, the pump stopped working last year and he is hoping that he will be able to collect the water once again in the near future.

Stan was prompted to get in touch with the Guardian after our story last week about 17-year-old Amy Gnatuik, of Chester Road, Hartford, who suffers from aplastic anaemia.

One of the symptoms of this disease is an extremely low platelet count.