Dr McLaren was one of the medical staff who cared for Alf Roberts when he was hospitalised in March 1979, after a timber lorry had crashed into the front of the Rovers Return Inn when he and Mike Baldwin were inside the pub. Alf suffered a fractured skull and was in a coma, but recovered a short time later. Mike had two broken ribs, slight concussion and a fractured ankle, but his biggest concern being the smooth running of Baldwin's Casuals in his absence, he tried to charm the nurses into letting him use a telephone.