Helen Biggins
HELEN Biggins was provost of East Kilbride from 1988 to 1992 and worked as a primary teacher until her retirement in 1990.
She is also the current chairperson of the East Kilbride Public Partnership Forum (PPF), chairperson of South Lanarkshire’s Better Government For Older People, a member of the Scottish Health Council and also the South Lanarkshire Carers Network.
Helen, 77, has lived in East Kilbride since 1967 and taught at St Kenneth's Primary, in East Mains, and Our Lady of Lourdes Primary, in The Murray, in the town.
She is therefore well placed to comment on the National Health Service in Lanarkshire as it reaches its 60th birthday.
Here, the mother of five looks at her own experiences of the NHS and explains why it should be celebrated and supported in the future.
She said: “I’ve been around since the beginning of the NHS and have always been a huge fan.
“In 1947, the year before the NHS came into being, I was a naïve 16-year-old student who got a job working at an office in Berkeley Street in Glasgow collating personal data which would be the information base for doctors and patients.
“It was very interesting work and it opened my eyes to how big an impact the NHS was going to make to people’s lives.”
Helen continued: “The NHS was one of the most wonderful things that ever happened in this country.
“It’s a national treasure that should be cherished because of the tremendous improvements it has made to the nation’s health.
“I remember the powerful and stirring speeches of Aneurin Bevan who inspired people to share his vision for a national health service free at the point of need.
“The aim of the NHS to ensure all people in Britain have the best possible chance of leading a healthy, well balanced life remains.
“I would like to see more people championing the NHS and the preservation of the organisation as envisaged as a service universally free at the point of delivery.
“We should take stock from time to time that these values, which inspired the setting up of the NHS, are not lost but developed for the benefit of everyone.”