Bob Smith at the North Middlesex Hospital

THE family of an man with dementia who went missing last week say they are “hugely relieved” after he was found safe and well in North Middlesex Hospital on Friday.

The disappearance of Robert Smith, a popular retired London Undergound worker and Arsenal season ticket holder, sparked panic among his friends and family after the 71-year-old left his Hornsey Road home early last Sunday morning without a coat or socks and no money.

But the family cried tears of joy when one of his social workers called to say he had been found.

Describing the moment they walked into his room at the north London hospital, his sister-in-law Liz Conway said: “He had a massive big beam on his face as we walked into the ward. We’d stopped at the nurses’ station and I just happened to look right into a private room and he was there, sat in a chair beside the bed, and I said ‘Hello Robert what you doing here?’ and he said ‘Hello’ with a great big grin on his face – so we knew that he knew us, but I’m not sure he clicked straight away who we were.

“My sister [his partner of 30 years] went in and gave him a hug and a kiss and I went to get coffees. When I walked back in, he said ‘Look who’s here,’ pointing at Teresa and I said ‘You’re lucky aren’t you – we found you!’.”

The family are not yet sure what he did in the 19 hours he was unaccounted for or exactly how he ended up at the hospital, near Tottenham, more than four miles away from his home.

“They are saying he self-presented at North Middlesex accident and emergency at 8 o’clock on Monday, January 30,” Ms Conway added. “Now a Good Samaritan must have taken him there because he would never have found it on his own. I think they must have left after dropping him there, for whatever reason.

“When my sister went through his clothes he had a McDonald’s paper cup in his pocket, a banana and some silver coins, so someone must have bought him a banana or given him some money – I think somebody must have realised he was lost; he didn’t look like he lived on the streets.”

Mr Smith – known as Bob – has been in hospital for almost two weeks and is set to be discharged “imminently”.

Ms Conway said the family have been amazed at how well he is and remarked that since he left home he has been without medication for his Alzheimer’s and appeared to be the better for it. “He is much calmer and more lucid,” she added. “There’s a noted difference in him.”

While they are grateful for the help they and Mr Smith has received, Ms Conway said the family are investigating why it took so long to identify him in hospital; there were five days of desperate searching and unnecessary pain for the family while he was safe in hospital.