“WITHOUT the NHS, I would be dead by now”, quipped Harry Leslie Smith, the 95-year-old veteran NHS campaigner, who in 1926 witnessed the slow death of his elder sister Marion from TB.

Back then, with no NHS, families couldn’t afford basic health care, and poverty-related communal diseases took scores of lives.

York’s Archives have unveiled a unique catalogue of social history and how poverty contributed to such a high level of illness and premature mortality in the city. I found it fascinating to read the records of how health shaped our city and would encourage everyone to visit ‘The Past Caring Project’ which catalogues and conserves the city of York’s poor law and health care records.

This can either be viewed on the York Explore website or you can visit the library on Museum Street in York and request to view it.

But on 5 July 1948, everything changed.

We had a Labour Government who believed that politics could significantly improve the lives of people across our society. They built the houses that were needed, they introduced social welfare, they created the jobs for our war heroes to return to, and they had the vision and foresight to create the NHS.

Seventy years on, the legacy of that Government has touched all of our lives. The NHS is where life events happen, it’s where we come into the world, it is where we go to seek help in times of need, and it is often where we spend our final moments.

The NHS sees 1 million people every 36 hours, a million miracles and a million ‘thank yous’ uttered. Everyone is treated the same and given the help they need by the dedicated professionalism, love and care of 1.3m staff available to us all 24/7.

It was my privilege to work in the NHS for 20 years, witnessing high tech medical advances alongside tender humanity; a highly pressured environment but with staff with the time to take your hand and listen; whether there to help a sick body or mind, the NHS astounds us all in its capacity and capability.

That is why, when it is fragile, under pressure, underfunded, being exploited for profit, or floundering, it grieves us. We must protect our greatest asset, and now it is time we play our part to help our wonderful NHS.

Political interference of cuts, privatisation, fragmentation, lack of staff, space and capacity does hurt the NHS; and as your MP, I will continue to do everything I can to prevent the Government from destroying it.

As the NHS moves beyond its three score years and ten, we have to change too. For the last month I have worked with all York’s health services to support the biggest change we need to see in our nation’s health – the way we look after ourselves from cradle to grave.

Due to its success the NHS has become a sickness service; in future we need it to find its purpose once more as a health service.

If we all made just one lifestyle change, we would most definitely reap the benefit. Modern diseases are as avoidable as the poverty diseases of the past, if only we had a little help to change our ways.

So what is your NHS70 pledge, what will you change to improve your health and those you care about – reaching out against the loneliness in our society and taking time to talk to a neighbour? Changing the things we eat? Taking a little more exercise?

It is the best way to say thank you to our remarkable NHS for all it has done for us and our friends and family through the years.

I assure you that as your MP, I will always do all I can in Parliament to ensure that the NHS works for you too. It is at the heart of what our Labour Party is about, and central to all that I believe in.

Why not join in too.

On Thursday, July 12, 2018, at 7.30pm at the Principal Hotel, we are so privileged to be hosting Harry Leslie Smith, author of Harry’s Last Stand and featured in Ken Loach’s film “The Spirit of ’45”.

Why not come along and hear this unique story of the miracle – the NHS, and from others who are passionate to ensure we can celebrate another 70 years of the NHS.