Hubby saw grandkids thanks to greatest care

The NHS is the greatest institution we’ve got and we should be so proud of it.

My husband Robert was diagnosed with total renal failure aged 50 and his treatment gave us 16 more years together.

He died aged 66 in 2012.

In those years he got to watch his children grow up and see each of his grandchildren born.

Without the NHS we wouldn’t have had that. He went for dialysis three times a week at Sunderland Royal Hospital and the doctors and nurses became like an extended family to us.

They kept treating him – he had two kidney transplants that failed – and you wouldn’t have had that in America.

We all owe our NHS so much.

■ Jan Leach, 70, Houghton-le-Spring, Tyne and Wear