THE launch of the Cancer Centre Campaign, the biggest public appeal in Colchester Hospital’s history, could not have come at a worse time.

The hospital was in crisis after police and Care Quality Commission investigations into allegations of bullying and the alteration of medical data.

The complaints were investigated and eventually ruled unproven, but the damage was done. They put Colchester General Hospital under the microscope, its every failing laid bare.

But if ever there was a man well placed to pull triumph from the teeth of adversity, it is Peter Wilson.

The new chairman of the Cancer Centre Campaign has spent years turning crisis- hit businesses into profitable multimillion- pound success stories.

He admits he likes a challenge, and it’s clear his quiet manner with his gentle Swansea accent belies a will of steel.

He smiles as I congratulate him on the Welsh victory over England in the Rugby World Cup, telling me: “I was there. I have tickets for the quarter finals and semi-finals and if we get the finals, I’ll try to get a ticket for that.”

Mr Wilson spent three years as a medical student, before choosing a different career path, in engineering.

He became a graduate trainee with British Steel and worked his way up before joining BTR Industries, where he was chief executive of one company and managing director of another.

From there, he was head-hunted to the Northumbrian Water Group and then by the ailing Suffolk Ransomes farm machinery company in 1993.

He said: “Ransomes was in great financial difficulties at the time.

“We were able to turn that business around quickly. Within six months, we had turned a half-yearly profit and then a yearly profit.”

After taking early retirement in 2000, aged 55, he was approached by another Ipswich company, Crane.

He said: “It was in decline. We changed it totally and it turned into a $200million business.”

Now Mr Wilson is turning his attention to the Cancer Centre Campaign’s big push to raise £4.5million.

He became involved with the hospital when, approaching retirement a second time, he became a non-executive director.

He said: “I wanted to put something back into the community and felt the hospital was a way of doing that.”

That was in 2011, when the hospital was still perceived to be doing well. Two years later, the balloon went up.

A CQC investigation found staff had manipulated cancer waiting times and every aspect of the hospital came under scrutiny.

When hospital trust chairman Sally Irvine, left last October, Mr Wilson stepped into the breach as interim chairman.

He said: “It was possibly the worst period in the trust’s history.

Morale was not good. We had lost of a lot of executives and had several interim managers.

“It was a difficult working environment. We did not have enough staff, particularly nursing staff, but you can’t just add bodies. They have to be the right bodies with the right qualifications and the right attitude.

“I’ve always held the view the NHS is a great institution. I am fully supportive of it, but it needs to be a better and more efficient organisation.”

After standing down as interim chairman in April, he was asked to chair the Cancer Centre Campaign – an offer he says he couldn’t refuse.

He explained: “My experience of being treated in the hospital was good.

“The NHS has paid £25million for a new radiotherapy centre.

We need to find another £4.5million to go the extra mile and get the absolute best for the people of Colchester and north Essex.

“For this, we need local support – the donations from cake sales and bike rides for which we are so grateful are vital.

“The money helps us to demonstrate to bigger concerns we hope will become donors there is great public support and love for the hospital.

Doing that is vitally important.”

Although officially retired from the world of business, Mr Wilson is still involved. He helped set up Harwich steelwork company Landguard Engineering and is still a director.

He is also a trustee of the Harwich Mayflower Project, which is recreating the Pilgrim Fathers’ ship in a local boatyard, and chairman of the Friends of Dedham Church which has its own fundraising target of £180,000.

As far as the Cancer Centre Campaign is concerned, £800,000 has been raised or pledged in its first year. There is still a considerable way to go.

How long will he be involved, I ask?

Straightforwardly, quietly, he responds: “Until it is done.”

To donate to the Cancer Centre Campaign, which is sponsored by the Gazette, text GAZE11 £10 or an amount of your choice to 70070. Cheques can be made payable to CoHoC Cancer Centre Campaign and sent to Colchester Hospitals Charity in Turner Road. Donations can also be made on their website.