Thank You For Saving My Life

Dear NHS

Thank you so much for making sure that I am here today to write this letter.

In my early life, you saw over my birth and were there when I needed an appendectomy at the age of six. Many years later you would do the same for my dad who had driven home from London with a burst appendix, and during treatment, he found out he was allergic to penicillin and suffered major hallucinations but, thanks to you, he is still here today.

I was kept in good health well into my twenties by your vaccination programs and the only thing that happened in that time was a fractured finger when on a stormy night I crashed my dad's van into the back of a bus when the brakes failed to slow me down.

When my daughter Juliet was two she was diagnosed with an ovarian cyst and was referred to the Royal Children's Hospital at Pendlebury, Manchester. I stayed overnight when she was being treated and shared an apartment with other parents. I expressed support and sympathy when one mother told me that her daughter had come in because she was diagnosed with leukaemia. I remember in the sixties that this was a death sentence, the daughter of my mum's friend had died that way, so when I said I was so sorry, she told me not to be as they were going home the following day as she had been cured.

The happiness, hope and elation that lit in me made me hopeful for Juliet.

After two weeks she had the cyst removed and has been monitored by the NHS, and suffered from cancer twice, but is in brilliant health thanks to you NHS. I did not know she had been on the terminal ward, and one mother lost their child while I was there, and that was difficult to deal with but you provided care and love for them.

You were there when my daughters Juliet and Kirsty came into this world and also Kirtsy's daughter Alexis Leia.

You were there when I was one of the first people in the world to contract ITP. That scared me so much as I thought I would not see my daughters grow up, they were two and four at the time. This is what happened and how you saved my life and got me to appreciate Guinness then:

Due to my liking for Guinness, I developed cirrhosis of the liver and as a result, I am scanned each year to check it, and thanks to your advice there has been no deterioration in the last fifteen years, but unfortunately I developed Liver Cancer but that was only discovered a year late when I missed a scan due to COVID, but once more you saved my life again, which I documented here:

I know this is reading like I am sharing my life story with you, but it is thanks to you that I have a life story to tell.

Thanks to not looking after myself up to about 2000 I became diabetic, and you provide the drugs, treatments, and advice that help me keep that under control. Recently you gave me 24/7 access to keep track of my blood sugar and that is an absolute godsend and I documented that here. So thank you so much for that:

Every day I am grateful for your care. If I have a problem I can call you and you are always there when I need you.

You are the reason that I will be here for a very long time.

Yours Gratefully and Thankfully

Francis Michael Singleton