‘I count blessings despite the virus’

I FEEL I need to express my feelings concerning the situation that our great country finds itself in.

My wife and I have been in home lockdown for nearly four months. We were married in 1972 and we have two children and three beautiful grandchildren.

Everything has not been rosy in the interim but we stuck together through thick and thin. Of all our contemporaries in the 1970s, only two couples are still together.

We have both had serious medical issues which we have faced full on and quite frankly we are both very lucky to be alive.

This is due to the first-class service we have received from the NHS in North Staffordshire.

The surgeon who saved my life has moved on from North Staffs to a very senior level of oncology in the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham. On being diagnosed with cancer some 10 years ago, I remember him saying to me that he would give me five-star treatment and treat me as a member of his family.

This gave me great solace in the predicement I was in.

At 75 I am now five years older than my dear old dad when he passed away.

I am very fortunate to be looked after by a first class lady and I count my blessings. She is a little younger than me but had a major stroke eight years ago. Due to her stoical determination she has recovered completely. I am a lucky man.

Mike King Cheadle