HATS off and three cheers to the National Health Service. The uncertainty of life was certainly rammed home to me this past fortnight.

At 6pm I was at my local shop getting my lottery ticket, and at 7.10pm I was outside the operating theatre about to have emergency treatment to remove a blood clot from my arm in York Hospital.

Nurses, doctors, surgeons, pharmacists and pharmacist assistant Jane and Selby ambulance crew were all a great source of comfort in Room Two on Ward 14.

I made great friends of Graham, and ex-RSM John, and Brian, from Flaxley Road, Selby, whom I nicknamed the birdman of Selby (not Alcatraz) because he couldn’t wait to get home to his beloved budgie.

I just thank God that I wasn’t in America when it happened. There they would have wanted to know how much I had in the bank before I could get into my pyjamas. Thanks a lot to everyone.

Ken Holmes, Cliffe Common, Selby.