Without the NHS I would be dead by now BY

Earlier this month, I was struck by pneumonia at the age of 94. It almost made me give up the ghost as I grew so ill I required a hospital stay and intravenous antibiotics. I even needed my right lung drained of fluids. This brush with sickness reminded me that because I am very old, death is stalking me as a hunter tracks a wounded animal.

But I know were it not for the NHS my life would have ended a long time ago because I come from an endless ancestry of hard-working folk whose labour never paid enough to afford a pleasant life.

The working class only came to good fortune when a Labour government was elected in 1945. Clem Attlee’s government dragged the country into the future by erecting a welfare state built upon the principle of universal healthcare, delivered through the NHS. I recognised in 1948, when it was established, that it was a revolutionary concept because before then a trip to the doctor wasn’t based upon your needs but what was in your wallet. When I fell ill with bronchitis a month after the NHS was born, I was gobsmacked that I’d been treated and issued antibiotics without having to wonder how I’d pay for it on my labourer’s wage. It’s why I’ve been frantic to impart to the younger generations that the consequences of not defending their right to an NHS that is funded by the State are dire.

If you are indifferent to the erosion of NHS services, the loss of trained staff due to Brexit or the demoralisation of staff due to austerity and inadequate wages, you are surrendering my genera-

FIGHTER Harry in hospital