HAPPY BIRTHDAY OUR NHS

THURSDAY 5^th May – T MINUS 12 days to my needing to submit the text for my book I LOVE OUR NHS – David’s Story to AMAZON in order to publish it on the fifth anniversary of Rebekah’s passing.

Now up to 103,972 words.

I have researched EVERY number one hit in the UK charts for the birthday of our NHS and included them in a chapter for each decade. For each I have made a list of significant happenings during each year. Today I would like to share with you the SWINGING SIXTIES.

In the book I can not play the music, obviously, but here I am doing just that thanks to YouTube.

ENJOY...

Tuesday 5^th July 1960: So now we are up to ONE DOZEN wonderful, love filled years of our NHS !

THREE STEPS TO HEAVEN by Eddie Cochran

This was week eight in the UK charts for this single.

Eddie Cochran was an American singer born on 3^rd October 1938. He died in a car accident while on tour in England. He passed away on 17^th April 1960 in Saint Martin’s Hospital, Bath. This number one hit was a posthumous celebration of his music.

What else happened this year ?

Harold Macmillan still had his feet under the table in Downing Street.

The Shaddows great musical hit Apache was released and Lionel Bart’s Oliver was first staged.

No doubt you are familiar with black plastic bin bags. It was in 1960 that these were first introduced in Hitchen, Hertfordshire

Exclude Downing Street and we are truly swinging. So what else was happening ?

19^th February

The Queen gives birth to her third child and second son, the first child born to a reigning British monarch since 1857.

6^th March

Princess Margaret marries photographer Antony Armstrong-Jones at Westminster Abbey in the first televised Royal marriage

21^st  July

Francis Chichester, English navigator and yachtsman, arrives in New York aboard Gypsy Moth II having made a record solo Atlantic crossing in forty days.

15^th September

The first traffic wardens deployed in London. NOT SURE HOW SWINGING THAT IS.

2^nd November

Penguin Books is found not guilty of obscenity in the Lady Chatterley's Lover case.

9^th December

the first episode of soap opera Coronation Street, made by Granada Television in Manchester, is aired on ITV. It will still be running past its 10,000^th  episode in its 60^th

 anniversary year. Characters introduced in the first episode include Ken Barlow (William Roache), Ena Sharples (Violet Carson), Elsie Tanner (Pat Phoenix) and Annie Walker (Doris Speed). I watched those early episodes when I was a kid but am pleased today that I have better taste.

Wednesday 5^th July 1961: Unlucky thirteen but everything is lucky with the love of our NHS !

RUNAWAY by Del Shannon

This was week ten in the UK charts for this single

Charles Weedon Westover, better known by his stage name Del Shannon, was an American rock and roll country musician, singer and songwriter, best known for this  number 1 UK and US Billboard hit. He was born on 30^th December 1934 in Grand Rapids, Michigan, USA and left us on 8^th February 1990 in Santa Clarita California.

What else happened this year ?

No change at number ten !

This decade Barclays became the first UK bank to install a computer.

This year Ian Flemming published his James Bond novel Thunderball. Which was the first James Bond film you ever saw. Mine was Thunderball and remains today my favourite.

3^rd April

The Jaguar E-Type, a sports car capable of reaching speeds of 150 mph, is launched as a two-seater roadster or 2+2 coupé.

13^th June

The Government unveils new panda crossings with push button controls for pedestrians, due to concerns about the increasing volume of traffic. The new crossings first appear on British streets in April 1962

1^st July

Lady Dianna Spencer was born.

3^rd August

The Suicide Act decriminalises acts of, or attempts at suicide in England and Wales.

1^st October

Religious programme Songs of Praise is first broadcast on BBC Television; it will still be running sixty years later.

4^th December

Birth control pills become available on the NHS after their availability is backed by Health Minister Enoch Powell. 

Doctor, doctor ! I’ve swallowed my pocket money !  Take this and we’ll see if there’s any change.

Thursday 5^th July 1962: Well our NHS you truly are at fourteen a teenager are you not ?

COME OUTSIDE by Mike Sarne with Wendy Richard

This was week eight in the UK charts for this single.

 

This track stayed at number one for a fortnight during the weeks commencing 28^th  June and 5^th  July 1962. The song was placed twelfth on the chart of overall single sales for the calendar year 1962 in the UK.

Mike Sarne was primarily an actor but had a brief spell as a pop singer.

Wendy Richard was an English actress, known for her television roles as Miss Shirley Brahms on the BBC sitcom Are You Being Served ? from 1972 to 1985, and Pauline Fowler on the soap opera EastEnders from 1985 to 2006. Despite being well-known for her distinctive Cockney accent, Richard was born in Middlesbrough. She was born on 24^th July 1943 and left us on 26^th February 2009.

What else happened this year ?

No change at number ten ! (Yawn.)

This year Ian Flemming gave us another adventure with James Bond, The Spy Who Loved Me. Agatha Christie published The Mirror Cracked From Side To Side.

2^nd January

BBC Television broadcasts the first episode of Z-Cars which is noted as being the realistic portrayal of the police force.

4^th February

The Sunday Times becomes the first newspaper to print a colour supplement.

4^th April

James Hanratty is hanged at Bedford Prison for the A6 Murder despite protests from many people who believe he is innocent, and the late introduction of witnesses who claim to have seen him in North Wales on the day of the murder.

25^th May

The new Coventry Cathedral is consecrated.

6^th June

The Beatles play their first session at Abbey Road.

14^th June

BBC Television broadcasts the first episode of Steptoe and Son.

1^st July

Heavy smog develops over London.

17^th August

Telstar by The Tornados is released

20^th September

The Ford Motor Company launches the Cortina, a family saloon costing £573.

22^nd December

The Big Freeze in Britain begins with no frost-free nights until 5^th  March 1963.

Friday 5^th July 1963: Fifteen years old now our NHS. In 1963 the school leaving age was fifteen.

I LIKE IT by Gerry And The Pacemakers

This was week five in the UK charts for this single.

 

What an incredible band this was. Gerry and the Pacemakers were a British beat group prominent in the 1960s Merseybeat scene. In common with The Beatles, they came from Liverpool, were managed by Brian Epstein and were recorded by George Martin.

What else happened this year ?

No change on our NHS’s birthday in Downing Street BUT in October Harold moved out and in came Alec Douglas Home.

This year Ian Flemming is still at it with James Bond On Her Majesty’s Secret Service.

Alistair MacLean publishes his thriller Ice Station Zebra. Fantastic film.

11^th January

The musical film Summer Holiday starring Cliff Richard premieres in London. I went to see it at the Odeon Cinema in Kingstanding, Birmingham

29^th January

Charles de Gaulle, President of France, vetoes the UK's entry into the European Economic Community. What a GREAT guy he was !

27^th March

Chairman of British Railways Doctor Richard Beeching issues a report calling for huge cuts to the UK's rail network. This is expected to result in the closure of more than 2,000 railway stations as well as the scrapping of some 8,000 coaches and the loss of up to 68,000 jobs.

One of the routes cut was the Oxford to Cambridge line. Living in Milton Keynes every day I can see work taking place to rebuild the track !

5^th June

John Profumo, Secretary of State for War, admits to misleading Parliament and resigns over his affair with Christine Keeler.

12^th July

Pauline Reade, age sixteen, is reported missing on her way to a dance in Gorton, Manchester, the first victim of the Moors murders.

8^th August

The Great Train Robbery takes place in Buckinghamshire. I remember the news reports as if it happened yesterday.

23^rd November

The first episode of Doctor Who was broadcast. YES, I did watch it on the family’s flickering black and white television.

25^th November

The Duke of Edinburgh, Prime Minister Sir Alec Douglas-Home and Leader of the Opposition Harold Wilson attend the funeral of USA President John F. Kennedy in Washington DC.

The assassination of JFK has gone down in history, along with the likes of the death of Elvis Presley and Dianna Princess of Wales, where those at the time can clearly remember where they were when they heard the news. I remember it so well.

This was the year when I became a teenager. I remember so well all of those events. Now I am just an old man ! As a teenager the life-expectancy was always colloquially quo ted as THREE SCORE YEARS AND TEN ! I have passed that milestone and I hope have a good few years left. How come ?  Three words, well actually FOUR: OUR NATIONAL HEALTH SERVICE.

Sunday 5^th July 1964: (Leap year again) Happy SIXTEENTH Birthday

IT’S OVER by Roy Orbison

This was week eight in the UK charts for this single.

 

Roy Kelton Orbison was an American singer, songwriter, and musician known for his impassioned singing style, complex song structures, and dark, emotional ballads. Born on 23^rd April 1936 and leaving us on 6^th December 1988 his life suffered a number of tragedies which he fought his way through. Some people think his wearing dark glasses was due to his being blind but it was not, it was  part of his dark image.

What else happened this year ?

Alec Douglas Home’s brief tenure at 10 Downing Street came to an end in October when Labour’s Harold Wilson won the general election.

Ian Fleming gave us another James Bond film You Only Live Twice was published. He also published his book for children Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang. On 12^th August Ian Fleming passed away.

1^st January

Top Of The Pops first airs on BBC TV. Today we don’t have any pop music to top with do we !

21^st January

Government figures show that the average weekly wage is £16.

22^nd January

The Film Zulu is released. GREAT film, I wish retro-tv would play it sometime soon.

21^st February

£10 banknotes are issued for the first time since the Second World War. 

28^th March

The pirate radio station Radio Caroline begins broadcasting. FAN-FLIPPIN’-TASTIC. All we have today is Radio Boring !

16^th to 18^th May

Violent disturbances between Mods and Rockers at Brighton. Hands up all who know what a MOD and what a ROCKER was.

15^th July

The Post Office Tower in London is completed, although it does not begin operation until October 1965.

28^th July

Winston Churchill retires from the House of Commons at the age of eighty-nine. He was a living national hero, even ti we young kids.

13^th August

Peter Anthony Allen, at Walton Prison in Liverpool and Gwynne Owen Evans, at Strangeways Prison in Manchester, are hanged for the murder of John Alan West on 7^th  April, the last executions to take place in the British Isles. In my book BEHIND THE NOOSE OR NOT I debate the rights and wrongs of capital punishment. As a teenager and young adult I was in favour of such but now I am of a totally opposite opinion.

2^nd November

ITV soap opera Crossroads airs for the first time. What a load of old rubbish that was but still we watched it every day. I was at school with a lad who acted in the show.

21^st December

MPs vote 355 to 170 for the abolition of the death penalty, with the abolition likely to be confirmed before the end of next year. The death penalty has gradually fallen out of use over the last twenty years, with the two most recent executions having taken place in August this year.

26^th December

Police launch a missing persons investigation after ten year old Lesley Ann Downey goes missing from a fairground near her home in Ancoats, Manchester. She is a victim of the Moors Murders.

Monday 5^th July 1965:

I’M ALIVE by The Hollies Happy SEVENTEENTH Birthday

This was week five in the UK charts for this single.

 

What else happened this year ?

Harold Wilson is residing firmly in Downing Street and will have significant influence upon the country during his time as Prime Minister.

The decade is really becoming The Swinging Sixties.

It was within this year that Mary Quant gave us the mini-skirt. The Sixties were really Swinging.

7^th January

Identical twin brothers Ronnie and Reggie Kray, age thirty-one, are arrested on suspicion of running a protection racket in London.

24^th January

Sir Winston Churchill dies aged ninety at Chartwell, his Kent home of more than forty years.

30^th January

Thousands attend Winston Churchill's state funeral in London. During the three days of lying-in-state, 321,000 people have filed past the catafalque in Westminster Hall, and the funeral procession travels from here to the service at Saint Paul's Cathedral, attended by HM the Queen, Prime Minister Harold Wilson and representatives of 112 countries. He is buried privately at Bladon near his family's ancestral home in Oxfordshire.

It was fashionable for teenagers in this time to always wear a tie. On the day of Churchill’s funeral I wore a black tie. I have visited his grave at Bladon.

31^st January

National Health Service prescription charges end. (For now !)

23^rd April

The Pennine Way long-distance footpath officially opens.

23^rd June

The anniversary of Parliament is celebrated.

24^th July

Freddie Mills, former British boxing champion, is found shot in his car in Soho, dying the next day.

1^st August

Cigarette advertising is banned on British television.

20^th August

The Rolling Stones I Can’t Get No Satisfaction is released in the UK.

15^th October

150 police officers are drafted in to search Saddleworth Moor for the bodies of up to 11 missing people, mostly children or teenagers, who are believed to be buried there. The suspect in the murders is Ian Brady, charged with the murder of 17 year old Edward Evans eight days ago. His 23 year old girlfriend Myra Hindley has also since been charged with the murder, having been arrested on 11^th  October.

16^th October

Police find a girl's body on Saddleworth Moor.

17^th October

The body found on Saddleworth Moor yesterday is identified as that of 10 year old Lesley Ann Downey, who disappeared on Boxing Day last year from a fairground in the Ancoats area of Manchester.

18^th October

The Magic Roundabout premiers on BBC One.

21^st October

Ian Brady and Myra Hindley are charged with the murder of Lesley Ann Downey and remanded in custody.

29^th October

Mary Whitehouse founds the National Viewers' and Listeners' Association.

22^nd December

A 70 mph speed limit is imposed on UK roads

Tuesday 5^th July 1966: Happy EIGHTEENTH Birthday. Today eighteen is the rite of passage into adulthood but not back in 1966 when such was twenty-one.

PAPERBACK WRITER by The Beatles

This was week two in the UK charts for this single.

 

This song is very special to me. It gave me the dream to become a paperback writer and earn both fame and fortune. I am indeed now a paperback writer but somehow fame and fortune have evaded me !

What else happened this year ?

A fan of the Beatles Harold Wilson with his iconic pipe apparently surgically attached to his mouth continues in Downing Street.

Across the summer arrests are made after a protest against the Vietnam War outside the United States Embassy in London in Grosvenor Square when around 4,000 people turned violent. The Vietnam War rather dominated the decade but Harold Wilson firmly kept Britain out of the folly.

3^rd January

British Rail begins full electric passenger train services over the West Coast Main Line from Euston to Manchester and Liverpool with 100 mph operation from London to Rugby.

4^th March

In an interview published in the Evening Standard John Lennon of The Beatles comments, We're more popular than Jesus now.

20^th March

Theft of football's Jules Rimet Trophy whilst on exhibition in London.

27^th March

Pickles, a mongrel dog, finds the FIFA World Cup Trophy wrapped in newspaper in a garden in South London.

6^th April

Hoverlloyd inaugurate the first regular hovercraft service across the English Channel, from Ramsgate Harbour to Calais using passenger-carrying SR.N6 craft. Now defunct I did once upon a time travel to France on such a craft.

2^nd May

Scottish inventor James Goodfellow obtains a patent for an automated teller machine (ATM)  using a plastic card and PIN.

6^th May

The Moors Murderers, Ian Brady and Myra Hindley, are sentenced at Chester Crown Court to life imprisonment for three child murders committed between November 1963 and October 1965 in the north west of England. Brady is guilty of all three murders and receives three concurrent terms of life imprisonment, while Hindley is found guilty of two murder charges and an accessory charge in connection to the third which receives two concurrent life sentences alongside a seven-year fixed term.

30^th July

England beats West Germany 4–2 to win the 1966 World Cup at  Wembley. Geoff Hurst scores a hat-trick, and Martin Peters scores the other English goal, in a game which attracts an all-time record UK television audience of more than thirty-two million.

21^st October

Aberfan disaster in South Wales, 144 including 116 children are killed by a collapsing coal spoil tip.

Wednesday 5^th July 1967: Happy NINETEENTH Birthday. Still a teenager our NHS, wait until next year !

A WHITER SHADE OF PALE by Procol Harum

This was week five in the UK charts for this single

 

Procol Harum were an English rock band formed in Southend-on-Sea, Essex in 1967. Their best-known recording is the 1967 hit single A Whiter Shade of Pale which was one of the few singles to have sold over ten million copies.

What else happened this year ?

I wonder if Harold Wilson had this record in his Number Ten vinyl collection.

In January 1967 Harold Wilson’s government announced that an area of land in North Buckinghamshire was designated to become a new city. That New City became Milton Keynes where many of the anecdotes I am sharing in this book are set.

In March the first North Sea oil was pumped ashore.

In April Puppet on a String performed by Sandie Shaw won the Eurovision Song Contest. It was the first time the UK had won the competition.

1967 has gone down in history as The Summer of Love with the hippy invasion of Golden Gate Park in San Francisco. I have been to San Francisco more times than I can remember – strange place but today not a hippy in sight !

Anyway…..

4^th January

Racing driver and motorboat racer Donald Campbell was killed in a crash on Coniston Water in the Lake District while attempting to break his own speed record.

7^th February

The British National Front was founded.

12^th February

Police raided Redlands, the Sussex home of The Rolling Stones musician Keith Richards, following a tip-off from the News of the World. No immediate arrests were made, but Richards, fellow band member Mick Jagger and art dealer Robert Fraser were later charged with possession of drugs.

4^th March

The first North Sea gas was pumped ashore at Easington, East Riding of Yorkshire.

1^st June

The Beatles released Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, one of rock music's most acclaimed and influential albums.

1^st July

The first scheduled colour television broadcasts from six transmitters covering the main population centres in England began on BBC2 for certain programmes, the first being live coverage from the Wimbledon Championships. A full colour service (other than news programmes) began on BBC2 on 2^nd  December.

27^th August

The Beatles manager Brian Epstein died of an accidental overdose in London.

20^th September

The RMS Queen Elizabeth 2 (the QE2) was launched at Clydebank by Queen Elizabeth II, using the same pair of gold scissors used by her mother and grandmother to launch the Queen Elizabeth and Queen Mary respectively.

30^th September

BBC Radio completely restructured its national programming: the Light Programme was split between new national pop station Radio 1 (modelled on the successful pirate station Radio London) and Radio 2; the cultural Third Programme was rebranded as Radio 3; and the primarily-talk Home Service became Radio 4. Radio BORING !

19^th November

The pound was devalued from 1 GDP = 2.80 USA to 1 GBP = 2.40 USD. Prime Minister Harold Wilson defended this decision, assuring voters that it would tackle the root cause of the nation's economic problems. Today £1 = $1.25 !

27^th November

President Charles de Gaulle of France again vetoed British entry into the European Economic Community. GOOD MAN !

Friday 5^th July 1968 (Leap year again.): Happy NINETEENTH Birthday. Still a teenager our NHS, wait until next year !

JUMPIN’ JACK FLASH by The Rolling Stones

This was week four in the UK charts for this single

 

Everyone had heard of The Rolling Stones haven’t they ? For those who haven’t, The Rolling Stones are an English rock band formed in London in 1962. Active for six decades, they are one of the most popular and enduring bands of the rock era.

This song was used for the fantastic 1986 film Jumping Jack Flash starring Whoopi Goldberg.

What else happened this year ?

Harold Wilson continues as Prime Minister.

The I’m Backing Britain campaign is launched. Now long forgotten, it is still today the policy of our National Health Service.

20^th April

Enoch Powel makes is infamous Rivers of Blood speech.

8^th May

The Kray Twins, 34-year-old Ronnie and Reggie, are among eighteen men arrested in dawn raids across London. They stand accused of a series of crimes including murder, fraud, blackmail and assault. 

10^th June

The National Health Service reintroduces prescription charges

8^th June

Britain’s first heart transplant patient. Frederick West, dies forty-six days after his operation.

17^th July

The Beatles animated film Yellow Submarine debuts in London.

31^st Jul

BBC sitcom Dad’s Army is first broadcast

Doctor, doctor !  Do you have something for a headache ?  Yes, try this hammer.

Saturday 5^th July 1969: You’ve made it to twenty years of age our NHS – next year is the BIG one. Happy Birthday.

THE BALLAD OF JOHN AND YOKO by The Beatles

This was week three in the UK charts for this single

 

Do I really need to tell you who The Beatles were 

What else happened this year ?

Yes he is still there in Downing Street. Harold Wilson continues as Prime Minister.

January – the Ford Capri is launched. I would love to be able to afford to but today one of these classic cars.  I am looking at a starting price of £20,000 !

Also in January the Space Hopper toy was introduced to Britain. I was a bit too old to play with one but who remembers this ?

2^nd January

Australian media mogul Rupert Murdoch purchased the best-selling UK Sunday newspaper  News of the World.

1^st  March

The London Underground Victoria Line is opened by HM Queen Elizabeth II.

1^st March

The first B & Q DIY Superstore was set up in Southampton by Richard Block and David Quale

4^th March

The Kray Twins are both found guilty of murder: Ronnie of murdering George Cornell ; Reggie of murdering Jack "the Hat" McVitie. On 5^th  March, they are sentenced to life imprisonment.

7^th  March

The London Underground Victoria Line was opened by The Queen.

25^th March

John Lennon and Yoko Ono are married in Gibraltar.

29^th March

Lulu representing the UK with the song Boom Bang-a-Bang, shared first place in the Eurovision Song Contest in a four-way tie with France, the Netherlands and the host country, Spain. Later, in the Gulf War, BBC Radio Boring would ban playing the song.

17^th April

Representation of the People Act lowered the voting age from 21 to 18 with effect from February 1970. It also permitted candidates to have a party label included on the ballot paper, and removed the right (theoretically restored in 1967) of convicted prisoners to vote in Parliamentary elections.

20^th April

British Leyland Motor Corporation launched Britain's first production hatchback car, the Austin Maxi. For several years I owned and drove one.

24^th April

The final episode of Mrs Dale’s Diary is broadcast. Mrs Dale’s husband was Doctor Dale a GP

29^th May

Carry On Camping was released, becoming the year's most popular film at the UK box office

1^st July

Prince Charles was invested as Prince of Wales.

July

Apollo 11 becomes the first moon landing with Neil Armstrong becoming the first man to set foot on the Lunar surface.

5^th October

The first episode of  Monty Python’s Flying Circus was broadcast on the BBC.

And so now into the next decade. 1970’s The Disco Decade

T minus 13 days.

 I LOVE OUR NHS – David’s Story.

Yesterday my writing hit 100,788 words with probably another ten thousand to go.

Publishing the book on Thursday 19^th May I need to submit it to Amazon on Tuesday 17^th May. We are, therefore, in countdown mode – 13 SAYS TO GO.

Yesterday was a bit of a stressful day for me as somewhat out of the blue BBC News contacted me regarding PETS IN NEED. I spent a considerable time filming from which about thirty seconds was added to a major feature broadcast last night.

Talking with the reporter he liked my passion for heritage and in particular my book MILTON DREAMS THE CITY THAT NEVER WAS – have you read it ?  PLEASE DO.

On the e-book cover I feature an image from MK HAGS so today I would share with you the DRAFT text for that chapter within I LOVE OUR NHS – David’s story.

Milton Keynes has more heritage and more legend per square mile than any other town city or village anywhere in the country. Who in Milton Keynes can remember The MK Hags ?  Have they now become a legend ?  A forgotten legend perhaps ? But just look at the heritage The Milton Keynes Hags have given us.

For the planners within Milton Keynes Development Corporation life must have been something like playing three dimensional chess. Areas of employment had to be created but there was no point in doing this without having housing to accommodate the workers. What was the point of having houses with workers living there if there were no jobs ?  Ashlands in South Milton Keynes was originally a caravan site for workers and Scot of Bletchley Makers of the World’s Finest Cooked Meats used to ‘bus workers in from London every day.

Add to all of this the need to bring in services such as shops, community centres, schools and so on at the right time and in the right place it must have been a nightmare of a job to be a new city planner.

MILTON KEYNES IS DYING FOR A HOSPITAL. That was the motto, slogan, call it what you like of the MK Hags – Milton Keynes Hospital Action Group. Within the designate plan an area of land was set aside on what was to become the Eaglestone Estate where at the right time a hospital was to be constructed. But when was the right time ? The population needed to be large enough to both staff a hospital and to provide the patients. Milton Keynes Hospital Action Group vigorously campaigned to advance the date of the hospital’s opening. Milton Keynes was indeed dying for a hospital. Literally.

Without a hospital the new city was primarily served by Stoke Manderville Hospital in Aylesbury with some patients also being taken to Northampton. The roads we know today between these locations are not the way they were in pre-hospital Milton Keynes. A skilled ambulance driver with blue lights and sirens could perhaps make it to Aylesbury in twenty to twenty-five minutes.

Milton Keynes was dying for  hospital.

It was in the mid 1970’s when I was in the White Hart pub on Whaddon Way, Bletchley, when a young man collapsed to the floor. Everyone thought he was drunk. I can clearly remember someone on each side of him holding him up and trying to walk him about to sober him. A 999 call was made. The duty doctor for the area was on another case so it was a while before he attended. An ambulance came to the pub. The man, I guess he would have been in his late thirties, was not drunk but had suffered a heart attack. He died. Milton Keynes was dying for a hospital.

Milton Keynes did not have a hospital but in Whalley Drive Bletchley there was a maternity unity, Bletchley Maternity Hospital staffed by midwives with GP doctors popping in and out.

14^th September 1980 my wife was a patient with my son reluctant to make his entry to the world. Another lady was in a similar situation. As her husband and I waited we chatted and shared experiences. It was decided in my family’s case to wait and see how things developed but in the other case the flying squad was called in. This was a team of experts who blue lighted their way to Bletchley from Aylesbury, not from Stoke Manderville Hospital but from The Royal Buckinghamshire Hospital which was a specialist maternity unit. Finding the lady was expecting twins and not a single baby she was raced to Aylesbury by ambulance.

It was not the flying squad who decided my wife needed to be moved by ambulance to The Royal Bucks but our family GP, Doctor Labrum.

In Aylesbury I met up again with the gentleman I had spent time with at Bletchley Maternity Hospital. His wife had given birth to a son but his twin brother was still born.

“How am I going to bring my son up,” The gentleman said, “knowing his brother has died ?”

If Milton Keynes had a hospital that child would not have died.  Milton Keynes is dying for a hospital. It was, it most definitely was.

The sophisticated grid road system we know today in the third decades of the twenty-first century was but a series of lines on a plan in those years when Milton Keynes was dying for a hospital. Marlborough Street was an early line to come off the plan and become a length of tarmac. To the south were the estates of Tinkers Bridge, Netherfield, Bean Hill and Coffee Hall. At the northern end was Eaglestone after which Marlborough Street passed through open fields until it met the estates at the other end of the new city’s development plan.

In the Eaglestone field where the hospital would one day be built stood a giant sculptured

question mark. I managed to find an image of that sculpture and used it for the cover of my book MILTON DREAMS THE CITY THAT NEVER WAS. I challenge you to make a Google search for that sculpture, you will not succeed. Way back everyone knew it, everyone driving along Marlborough Street saw it but today it is forgotten. A legend it may perhaps be but a legend fast fading. I wonder what ever happened to the question mark, I sadly think it was thrown away. When our hospital came into being, when Milton Keynes Hospital Action Group achieved its aim so there was no need for the statue. Sad it was lost but wonderful it was no longer needed.

Milton Keynes is dying for a hospital ? NOT ANY LONGER ! The MK Hags became a legend as Milton Keynes General Hospital was born.

Entering the hospital from Standing Way today on your left you will find the post graduate centre and a giant multi-storey car park. In the early days this area comprised a ground level paved area for free car parking and a field. Every Sunday this hosted one of the biggest car boot sales in the country. I doubt there is a car boot sale anywhere today to match it in size and number of punters. It was said that the organisers paid the hospital one thousand pounds a week to hire the area. With inflation that would be £3,795 in today’s money. Not bad eh ! With the expansion of the hospital the boot sale has too passed into legend.

Milton Keynes is dying for a hospital became Milton Keynes General Hospital which became University Hospital Milton Keynes. Today our hospital has become a legend it its own time, it may operate under the official name of University Hospital Milton Keynes but in truth it is Beautiful, Incredible, Utterly Amazing, Loving University Hospital Milton Keynes. Milton Keynes Hags what do you think about that ?

I ran twice for election to the hospital board of governors, the second time I lost by six votes. I was very upset, it took me several weeks to get over the pain of not being able to serve our hospital in this way.

University Hospital Milton Keynes is without question one of the finest in the land but it does have a deep-rooted problem. I does not reach out and draw in love from the community. Love to support its work, love to celebrate its staff members and love to help care for its patients.

I discussed this matter with the then chairman of the hospital’s board who agreed with me. I felt it was the job of the governors to undertake this task but it simply was not something members were considering. I, therefore, came up with some ideas of my own and began putting them into actions.

TEEN HERO MK:

This is a project I set up in 2019 and had ready to begin operation in February 2020 but was scuppered by the pandemic. The way things have progressed across the following two years I find myself far from being optimistic that it ever could be revived.

University Hospital Milton Keynes Milton Keynes uses six thousand pints of blood in a year to treat its patients. Once a person reaches their seventeenth birthday they can sign on as a blood donor and give a pint of blood three times a year. TeenHeroMK intended to find two thousand 17+ teenagers to become donors and repay our hospital’s debt to the blood donor system.

Engaging with schools is not the easiest of tasks as such are target driven and do not always have time to focus on projects outside the curriculum and examination system. This is not a criticism but a fact of life. However, I did manage to build a relationship with the headmaster of Oakgrove School, a school with a sound and celebrated reputation within Milton Keynes. This was going to be the project’s lead school from which the project would be rolled out across MK.

Teenagers were inspired and donation times booked. However, the pandemic then thrust all schools into measures which made it impossible to go forward. Everything was put on the back burner and now the project has been cancelled. Although the corona virus situation is very different two years on schools are probably in a harder position now than when the original project was cancelled. There are staff shortages and teenagers are being attacked by the virus.

Cops4Blood

When I was trying to make this project happen in 2019/2020 I mentioned it to a senior community police officer who offered to put himself forward as a donor. From this I suggested Cops4Blood as a way to not only support the cohort of teenagers but also to celebrate the work our police officers do. However, pandemic again and all came to nothing. Add to this a change in officer staffing the idea is a bit dead in the water.

PROJECT WOMBLE

This is something I put together in discussions with Simon Lloyd when he was Chairman of University Hospital Milton Keynes. However, in part due to the tardy and somewhat inefficient operation of the local probation service managing community payback teams and then with the onset of the pandemic in early 2020 it never happened.

University Hospital Milton Keynes is supposedly a non-smoking campus and yet the number of cigarette buts to be found littering the ground is a major problem. So it was when I first put forward this suggestion.

My idea which I put to Simon Lloyd and obtained his agreement was to have a community payback team from the probation service initially clear the site and then to maintain the campus in a more tidy condition. 100% absence of cigarette buts is a major ambition but even one picked up and properly disposed of would be of value. If there is an absence of cigarette buts on the ground then surely smokers are less likely to dispose of their fag ends in this way.

I made an application to the Justice Department and was accepted to have a community payback team undertake the project. However, nobody from the department moved to engage with me in order to make things happen. I repeatedly wrote to the probation service in Milton Keynes without reply. It must have looked to the management of our hospital that I was at fault, failing to deliver on the initiative I put forward

Finally  I managed to talk with a privatised area of the probation service: Thames Valley Community Rehabilitation Company  This was far from an easy activity within which to engage. Eventually we reached the point where a site inspection was to take place but the pandemic closed all possibilities of such happening.

I have considered trying to revive the projects but do not see the semi-post pandemic society getting behind the ideas.

I LOVE OUR NHS and I LOVE OUR HOSPITAL. I want to do something to take that love out of my heart and wrap it around every staff member and every patient in the hospital. But how ?

MEET A COWARD – Part Two

MEET A COWARD – Part Two

Did you read yesterday’s chapter from my projects I LOVE OUR NHS – David’s Story ? If Not the CLICK HERE.

Right now the NHS is experiencing blood short age to love care and save patient lives. 

Are you a blood donor ? 

CHECK YESTERDAY’S PAGE and read today’s page.

I have now penned 97,414 words telling my story. I will be publishing the book on 19^th May which is the fifth anniversary of Beck’s passing. Have you read her story – OUR REBEKAH A LOVE STORY FROM OUR NHS ?  Please check it out.

So on with today’s account.

Allow Me Now To Introduce You To A Former Coward:

My blood group is A-. Do you know what blood group yours is ? There are four main blood groups:– A, B, AB and O. Each group can be either RhD positive or RhD negative which means in total there are eight blood groups. I had not considered mine was a rare blood group until I started writing this paragraph, apparently 8% of blood donors are A-. Ahead of my thirty-fifth donation I had a telephone call from NHS Blood and Transplant saying there was a serious shortage of A- blood so could the system check I was fit and well and would be keeping my donation appointment.

Researching blood donation I was surprised to find that only 4% of eligible donors actually give blood. My local hospital uses 6,000 pints of blood every year to care for its patients. If a donor gives a pint of blood three times a year two thousand donors are needed to repay its debt to the blood donor system. You can find the relevant statistics for where you live.

I had a blood test last week. I studied hard for it and got A+.

Funny ha, ha !

Donate a pint of blood – donate it with a gallon of love:

Across its entire operation our NHS everything is up close and personal. Never forget the NHS does not treat its patients, it always cares for them. When you donate blood the staff care for you throughout, from the moment you walk in through the door to your exit everything is up close and personal. However, a donor walks in and the donor walks out minus one pint of blood. Nothing up close and personal about that. But it can be !

Back to NHS Blood Donation. Up close and personal, shortly after you have given blood you will receive a text message telling you where your blood was used to care for a patient. You will, of course, never learn the identity of the patient who received your blood.

I have devised my own system which I call: DONATE A PINT OF BLOOD – DONATE IT WITH A GALLON OF LOVE. This is very new within my life but it is something I now use every time I give blood. Allow me to share my little project and invite you to do something similar within your own donation diary.

When I lay back in the chair and the blood starts to flow I close my eyes and try to shut everything out as I imagine the person who will receive my blood. I don’t try to visualise if that is a man, a woman or child but to think of a friend who is need of my help. As the blood, one pint of it, is flowing out of my arm I make my body pump one gallon of love from my heart to the patient who within a short space of time will have my blood being pumped through their body by their heart.

When I receive that text message from NHS Blood and Transplant telling me which hospital used my blood I go on-line and find out as much as I can about the hospital and look as photographs on the hospital’s website. I then enter everything into a diary.

As I explained this is something new for me but here are my diary entries so far.

DONATION THIRTY-THREE: Thursday 28^th October 2021 1.45pm – Donated at Christ The Cornerstone Central Milton Keynes – BLOOD RECEIVED AT ROYAL LONDON HOSPITAL

The Royal London Hospital is a large teaching hospital in Whitechapel in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It is part of Barts Health NHS Trust. The Royal London provides district general hospital services for the City and Tower Hamlets and specialist tertiary care services for patients from across London and elsewhere. There are 845 beds, 110 wards and 26 operating theatres at the Royal London Hospital. The new building opened in February 2012.

The Royal London was founded in September 1740 and was originally named the London Infirmary. The name changed to the London Hospital in 1748, and in 1990 to the Royal London Hospital. The first patients were treated at a house in Featherstone Street, Moorfields. In May 1741, the hospital moved to Prescot Street, and remained there until 1757 when it moved to its current location on the south side of Whitechapel Road, Whitechapel, in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets..

The hospital's roof-top helipad is the London’s Air Ambulance operating base. The helicopter is stored overnight at RAF Northolt.

DONATION THIRTY-FOUR: Thursday 20^th January 2022 1.45pm – Donated at Christ The Cornerstone Central Milton Keynes – BLOOD RECEIVED AT HAMMERSMITH HOSPITAL LONDON

Hammersmith Hospital, formerly the Military Orthopaedic Hospital, and later the Special

Surgical Hospital, is a major teaching hospital in White City, West London. It is part of Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, and is associated with the Imperial College Faculty of Medicine. Confusingly the hospital is not in Hammersmith but is located in White City adjacent to Wormwood Scrubs and East Acton.

DONATION THIRTY-FIVE Wednesday 20^th  2022 1.30pm – Donated at Christ The Cornerstone Central Milton Keynes – BLOOD RECEIVED AT - I am awaiting information from the NHS Blood & Transplant team.

I then write to the hospital sending SMILE cards to front-line staff thanking them for not treating patients but caring for them with love.

This is very important to me so as I here in this little book invite you to come up with something yourself which enables you to donate a gallon of love alongside your pint of blood.

 

Today’s chapter – part one of two MEET A COWARD !

Today’s chapter – part one of two MEET A COWARD.

Have you read the prequel to this project ? OUR REBEKAH A LOVE STORY FROM OUR NHS ?  In not PLEASE do so as I explain why I am so passionate about our NATIONAL HEALTH SERVICE and have been for almost 40 years. The e-book will cost you £1.77 and the paperback £8.99.

But on to I LOVE OUR NHS – David’s story….

I try hard to promote blood donation. I have so far given 35 pints myself BIT if I had not been such a sad, pathetic, miserable COWARD that number would be around 135 pints !

Read my story and see what a coward I was. Part two tomorrow.

I am a coward ! A sad, pathetic, miserable, despicable, wretched coward and I want the whole world to know about my cowardice. From that desire I hope to as many readers as possible, people who will act upon what I am about to say and themselves become blood donors. I am a sad, pathetic, miserable, despicable, wretched coward as I will now explain.

1972 or perhaps it was 1973, as a young man if only I could turn back the clock, I was attending teacher training college when the matron was about to donate her fiftieth pint of blood. She asked a small group of students to go with her to become blood donors.

NO WAY !  No way was I going to have somebody stick a needle into my body and draw off 12.5% of the blood flowing round my veins and arteries. ABSOLUTELY NO WAY !  It would hurt and cowards do not willingly submit themselves to pain. I think I was polite in declining Matron’s invitation, I hope I was and she simply let the matter rest.

Matron was a domineering lady who you did not argue with, I wish now so much that she had used that character trait to reinforce up her invitation. I wonder if back then Matron had the same philosophy as I do now when it comes to donating blood.

Donate a pint of blood but give it with a gallon of love.

Without this love the blood alone is worthless.

The years went by and cowardice faded into the background, donating blood did not present itself to me as a life opportunity again. Well it did but I was blind.

My daughter was born with chronic renal failure. In her very early life it was evident that she was not a healthy baby. We took her to our local GP surgery from there she was referred to our newly opened Milton Keynes General Hospital where a blood test was undertaken. The results came in and she was called back for it to be repeated as results showed a low creatinine level. My wife and I had never heard the word creatinine before but were told it indicated kidney function within the body.

My wife, Maureen, went to the hospital on a Friday afternoon to discuss the results of the second test. At the time I was running a sponsored twenty-four hour disco at Leon School in aid of Willen Hospice. I can picture so clearly in my mind our standing outside the hall, music playing inside and Maureen having a piece of paper in her hand with the test results and some notes from the hospital doctor explaining that ultimately Rebekah would need a kidney transplant. The next week Rebekah was in Guys Hospital in London, on Dickens Ward where years of loving medical treatment were about to start.

Years of loving medical treatment which involved seven different operations under the skilled hands of Surgeon Geoff Koffman and Paediatric Renal Consultant Sue Rigden. EVERY single operation involved my Beck receiving a blood transfusion yet I still did not step forward as a blood donor. Was that wrong or was that wrong ! Depends, I guess if you condone my cowardice.

It wasn’t actually cowardice that stopped me becoming a donor, that would have been bad enough, BUT in truth the prospect never occurred to me. My darling daughter received over her childhood something like ten pints of blood. Ten pints of blood lovingly donated by anonymous people from up and down the country yet her father never stopped to think that he should be repaying the debt by giving his blood to save the life of another person.

Cowardice or ignorance I am totally ashamed of myself and I want the world to know what a bad person I was, I want the world to know so others do not follow in my pathetic footsteps.

FIGHT REBEKAH FIGHT !  That was our family motto when Beck was seriously ill in hospital. FIGHT REBEKAH FIGHT !

Instead of fighting my fears of a needle being stuck in my arm and a pint of the red stuff being drawn out I subconsciously blocked being a blood donor from my thinking.

But then the transplant team at Guys Hospital decided the best chance of Rebekah having a successful kidney transplant would be by way of a live donor, initial tests were done taking a blood samples from both Maureen and myself. Owch !  I was going to have a needle stuck in my arm and blood drawn out, not a pint but a thimble full yet a needle is a needle is a needle is it not !

A friend told me that to overcome the fear of a needle being stuck into your skin the best thing to do was to stare at it, your eyes focussing on nothing but the point of the needle, ignore the nurse, ignore the syringe, just focus on the needle and dare it to hurt !  You know what ?  It worked. It didn’t hurt.

A few days later I was in my office at Leon School when the phone rang. It was Paediatric Renal Consultant Doctor Sue Rigden from Guys Hospital In London.

“Are you sitting down ?”  She said.

Actually I wasn’t.

“You might like to. From the tests we have chosen you to be the donor.”

My emotions were a kaleidoscope of excitement, pride but also of fear. Test after test after test followed with needle after needle after needle being stuck into me. I coped but when Consultant Transplant Surgeon Geoff Koffman kept warning me the pain post operation would be far greater for me than it would be for Rebekah receiving the donated kidney my response was. “Would you please stop telling me that, I don’t want to know !”

As part of the operation I was going to need to have a blood transfusion. Somewhere an anonymous donor would allow a needle to be stuck in his or her arm to draw off blood not to save my life but to keep my life safe during the operation. But do you know what it never occurred to me that post the operation I should sign up to be a donor. I was prepared to have one of my two kidneys removed to help my daughter but I was not prepared to have a pint of blood drawn from my arm to help a stranger.

In another chapter of this book you will read how I spent some time with Elizabeth Ward who founded The British Kidney Patients Association and gave us the first organ donor card. I contacted ITV News and persuaded them to make a documentary about the operations in order to support Elizabeth Ward’s work. Cameras were going to have to be specially prepared and cleaned, operators would have to pass tests before filming could take place simultaneously in the two adjacent operating theatres. The documentary would then follow Rebekah’s and my recovery.

I kept being reminded that the team of surgeons was treading a very fine ethical line. Rebekah’s operation would be lifesaving but cutting open my body would damage my health. A person can live comfortably with one kidney but it would be unethical to take one from my body if there was even the slightest possible chance Rebekah’s highly sensitive immune system could reject it.

“Don’t worry about that,” I repeatedly said. “Just do it.”

The day before the dual operations the team decided it could not sign off on the ethics of the operation and so it was cancelled. The ITV documentary became a short news feature which indeed did promote Elizabeth Ward’s donor card but not to the extent the full documentary would have. I was devastated, completely and utterly devastated. I came close to a nervous breakdown. I had been given six months paid leave by the school’s board of governors, I returned after just six days absence. My teenage students, so many all these years later I am still in contact with, wrapped me in a blanket of love and support.

Those teenagers, now in their forties reading this story I thank you but I want you to know what a coward I was. I did not sign up as a blood donor.

I am speaking here of a time in the early 1990’s. For twenty years I continued my life of cowardice by refusing to become a blood donor.

Monday 19^th September 2011, I was less than two months away from my fifty-first birthday, I became a blood donor. Almost forty years since Matron approached me at college I finally managed to overcome my cowardice.

Do you know what ? IT DID NOT HURT. It did not hurt one tiny little bit.

Thirty, or thereabout, years of being a coward. Thirty years during which I could have donated a pint of blood three times a year. Do the Maths, NINETY pints.

When I overcame my cowardice I made a promise to myself that I would live long enough to donate fifty pints of blood and equal Matron’s record. Typing these words now in April 2021 for our book I have just received the paperwork for my thirty-fifth donation, fifteen to go. Donating three times a year, simple maths, another five years. April 2027 at the age of seventy-six going on seventy-seven I will have given my targeted fifty pints.

PART TWO TOMORROW..............