OUSTED chief executive of the Roy Castle Foundation yesterday remained tight lipped after the performer's widow severed links with the lung cancer charity.

Sylvia Ingham, of Langdale, a close friend of Fiona Castle, said it was "incredibly sad" for the Liverpool-based foundation, which she helped raise £14 million to establish.

Mrs Castle has asked for her late husband's name to be removed, after saying in a letter that she found her position untenable and could no longer be party to the way the foundation was being run.

She went on to say she was withdrawing her support.

Mother of two Mrs Ingham added she could not make any further comment.

She quit her £50,000 a year job last October, after the Charity Commission was called in to investigate her.

Inquiry findings later revealed Mrs Ingham had used funds for personal expenses for mobile phone calls, petrol and a re-routed flight.

It amounted to about £2,500, which was subsequently paid back.

Mrs Castle is currently in Boston and cannot be contacted, but she earlier told the Westmorland Gazette that Mrs Ingham had been used as a "scapegoat" and was guilty of nothing more than carelessness.

She added, without "Sylvia's human dynamo touch" the Roy Castle Lung Cancer Foundation Centre would probably never have got off the ground.

A statement from the foundation confirmed the contents of Mrs Castle's letter and said it had been difficult for her to come to terms with Mrs Ingham's departure.

"Fiona (Castle) would have preferred Mrs Ingham to be reinstated with the charity and an apology given.

"However, the trustees did not feel this was appropriate, or indeed in the best interest of the charity."

The decision had the support of the Charity Commission, added the foundation.