Nurse Jean from Clifford Chambers worked at a bush hospital near Melbourne and scaled the Great Wall of China during a lifetime helping others

This month the NHS celebrates its 75th anniversary amid growing fears about the spectre of privatisation or the unthinkable adoption of an American healthcare model which completely usurps a health service which is the envy of the world and established by the then Labour Government and its health minister Aneurin Bevan.

Before then, us Brits got by on a “I’m alright, Jack” day-to-day diet and the health choices facing the average family were simple. You only went to see a doctor if you had the money, so, you either paid for your medical needs upfront, contributed two pence (tuppence) a week to a health pension, relied on the goodwill of a benevolent society or didn’t see a doctor at all. Jean knows this only too well because when she had tonsillitis as a youngster it cost her mum and dad, two shillings and six pence to get tonsils sorted.

If we cast our thoughts back to the hit television series Call the Midwife and encourage happy images of a bygone era where young women – like Jean - answered the nursing call in the 1950s, it’s no surprise to learn that she did indeed have the uniform, a medical bag and a bicycle which she rode on her daily nursing rounds in south Wales to see her patients in their homes and got to know them on first name terms. However, before those bicycle wheels started turning there was training to be done and it began Birmingham where a disciplined regime would shape her whole life.

“I began my nurse training at Birmingham General Hospital in September 1948 and was part of the first intake of nurses following the birth of the NHS,” Jean told the Herald.

“You had to be 18 and single. We had to live in the nurse’s home. My salary was £4 per month but £2 per month was deducted for accommodation. We were allowed to be out after 10pm once a week and if we were late we had to see matron the next morning and be reprimanded so it was best to let the home sister know if you thought you were going to be late because you were watching a band. We were never allowed out in uniform but sometimes we just had to and hoped we’d never get caught.”

While matron enjoyed the comforts of her own flat – which came with the job - Jean and her colleagues made the best of what they had in the nurse’s home and there was food rationing to cope with and the worry caused by matron’s regular walkabouts around the hospital ward.

“We all had a jam jar which contained a measure of sugar, butter and margarine and we had to make it last for a week. When matron was doing a round we tidied and straightened all the beds and told our patients not to move when matron walked past during an inspection, it was all very disciplined,” said Jean.

There’s history involved in Jean’s NHS journey. She nursed Aneurin Bevan’s agent in hospital and actually got to hear a speech by Bevan himself when he addressed a crowd and said patient numbers would go down because the NHS would help keep babies and children healthy.

In 1952 while sitting her finals in the February of that year, the exam was interrupted with the news that King George VI had died and it was “a bit difficult to concentrate after that” Jean said. A new monarch was on the way.

Healthcare runs in her family. She married her husband Derek and the couple had three children. One became a consultant surgeon and two became physiotherapists. Jean now has ten grandchildren – some of whom are doctors and physicians – and she also has five great grandchildren.

In 1982 Derek and Jean moved their family to Melbourne due to her husband’s work. They spent six years there with Jean as a nursing sister in a bush hospital which looked after the local population who were not town or city based. The hospital had 30 beds, no medical staff and she was expected to help the surgeon when he visited to conduct operations.

“When China re-opened its doors to tourism in 1986 - but only to Australia initially -

My husband and I went there. We climbed the Great Wall of China and were all given a certificate to prove it. We were taken to see the mummified body of Mao Zedong laid in state,” said Jean.

The family returned to Britain and settled near Stratford and before her retirement in 1991, at the age of 71, Jean lectured on first aid in the workplace at Stratford College from 1988 onwards.

She’s loves the works of Shakespeare, enjoys amateur dramatics – is a member of equity - adores the Royal Shakespeare Company and still goes to matinees with a member of her family as a treat. And to cap it all Jean has staged pantomimes and reviews at the village hall in Clifford Chambers where she co-starred with special guest actor Jeffery Dench – brother of Dame Judi.

She joined the RSC as a member and was chair of the Shakespeare Club and is still a member of the oldest Shakespeare Club in the world.

The NHS marks a memorable milestone this year, but what does Jean think of the service she joined as an inspired youngster?

“In those days if you had your appendix out you were in hospital for seven days. If it was a hip operation your leg was put in a weighted pulley and you were in hospital for three months. I’ve had a hip operation at Warwick and was out within a few days. The NHS was straightforward back then. We had student nurses, staff, sisters, assistant matron and a matron managing the whole nursing staff. I think it’s sad to see the decline of cottage hospitals and during the war years, expectant mothers went to the Ellen Badger in Shipston to escape the blitz in Coventry. We didn’t have managers but now there are so many divisions within the NHS it’s become complicated,” said Jean.

Having spent a life in nursing and with her 93rd birthday on the way in September, Jean had this to say about the future of her beloved National Health Service.

“I think everyone has the right to free health care so let’s protect our NHS.

I would absolutely encourage young people to become a student nurse because……we need you.”