Binary Search Tree Problems

I have a maxValue function that is called when I am removing a node
from my tree.

template <class T>
T BST<T> :: maxValue (TreeNode<T>* p)
{
	if (p == NULL) throw ("BAD POINTER");

		while (p-> right)
		{
			p = p-> right;
			return *this;
		}
}

I am getting this error when it compiles: cannot convert BST<int> to
'int' in return
How do I fix this?