Mum and dad had to pay to have my sister .. they got me for free
MEET two of Bevan’s babies – children born the day the NHS came into existence. Over the years, they have had many reasons to be grateful for the service. As they celebrate their 70th birthdays alongside the NHS, they tell VIVIENNE AITKEN about the lives they’ve led over the last seven decades BABY Isabella was the second child of Alexander and Mary Frew but the first “free” one.
When her big sister Patricia was born a year earlier, Isa’s mum went to Buckreddan House in Kilwinning, Ayrshire – a maternity home where she had to pay towards the delivery.
But when Isa arrived on the first day of the NHS at Ayrshire Central Hospital, there was no charge.
Isa said: “Mum and dad had to pay to have Pat but they got me free.”
Alexander was a builder and Mary a church housekeeper so they fared better than most as they qualified for a GP under the employee insurance scheme.
But with four children, it would have been financially draining to pay for treatment for their childhood illnesses had the NHS not come into existence.
At six, Isa had a heart murmur and rheumatics and two years later needed to have her tonsils out.
After Isa met and married her husband Mario Frenguelli in 1969, they had three children – Sandrina, 49, Damian, 45, and Gregory, 38.
When their younger son was born, the NHS saved his life.
Gran-of-three Isa said: “He was born with a bowel complaint and needed to go to Yorkhill Hospital. We had him baptised in hospital before he was taken to Glasgow as it was feared he may die.
“He had phenomenal care and attention. He was operated on at just three days old and was kept in for about five weeks.”
Mario worked as a waiter before he and Isa bought a fish and chip shop in Troon and for 20 years he owed his life to the NHS. He had a string of medical complaints including bowel cancer, Hodgkin’s lymphoma, strokes, heart attacks and diabetes and, ultimately, another heart attack which killed him.
Isa said: “He was grateful for everything the NHS did for him. He loved Scotland and his way of life here. He said if he’d still been in Italy, they would have done their best for him but he would never have had the treatment he got here.
“I hate to think what it could have cost if there was no NHS.
“I know folk moan about the NHS but we’re so privileged to have it. I don’t think you could give someone a greater gift.
“I wish people would stop abusing it – those who go out at weekends, get drunk and end up berating staff. I know people moan about waiting times but when did we become a nation of moaners? We moan about everything.”
Last September, Isa felt unwell and went to the doctor, who called an ambulance.
At hospital, they confirmed she’d had a heart attack and a few months later, she went into the Golden Jubilee Hospital in Clydebank, where she had two stents inserted.
She said: “It was easier than going to the dentist.”
Since then, she has been taking part in a trial to see if a tablet normally prescribed for gout has any benefit to heart attack patients.
She said: “All the advances made in stroke and cancer treatments were possible because someone tried these things so I want to do my bit.”
Isa added: “When you are born in this country, you are born with a gift already given to you – medical care.
“If you have your health, you have everything.”
Folk moan about the NHS but we’re so privileged to have it ISA FRENGUELLI