NURSE May Parsons wiped away a tear at a Westminster Abbey service to celebrate the NHS’s 75th anniversary yesterday.
The pandemic hero, who gave the world’s first Covid jab in December 2020, carried the George Cross awarded to the service by Queen Elizabeth last year.
She was among more than 1,500 guests including the PM, Prince Edward and Sophie, Duchess of Edinburgh, as well as TV doctors Zoe Williams and Hilary Jones at the abbey service.
Hospital staff and ambulance crews from all over the country attended, as well as 91-year-old Enid Richmond, who worked for the NHS when it began in 1948.
NHS England chief Amanda Pritchard told them the health service was “the institution that makes our nation most proud to be British”.
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She praised medics and volunteers for battling the Covid pandemic and being “a beacon of hope for a nation during dark and uncertain times”.
Ms Pritchard added: “Recent years have brought a once-in-a-century global health emergency and unprecedented challenges.
“But throughout, our staff, volunteers and partners up and down the country have continued to do what they do best – looking after patients and their loved ones.”
Dr Michael Griksaitis, from University Hospital Southampton, told how NHS heroes flew dozens of children with cancer out of Ukraine when the war broke out.
PM Rishi Sunak gave a Bible reading and said in a message: “This anniversary is a moment to give thanks to the millions of men and women, from the UK, the Commonwealth, and around the world, who for 75 years have made the NHS what it is.”
