Given my chance because of skills learned in Troubles

When I was born I was three months premature, I weighed less than 2lbs and was clinically dead.

It was only the lifesaving work of the NHS that brought me back to life. What was more remarkable was that this was in 1969, when the mortality rate for premature babies was 95%-plus.

It wouldn’t be the last time the NHS saved me.

Aged seven I was hit by a car. I broke 15 bones across my body including my legs, ribs and pelvis.

My heart stopped. Again it was the NHS that resuscitated me.

Had I not been living in Enniskillen, Northern Ireland, I would probably not have lived or ever been able to walk again.

But because the surgeons had become so highly skilled from dealing with the Troubles I was able to walk again. I spent a year in the hospital, two years in a wheelchair and three years walking with crutches and calipers. I was 15 when I could walk again unaided.

So twice in my 49 years the NHS has saved me. It is without a doubt our most important public service.

And it gave me my greatest gift – while receiving treatment for early onset arthritis in my 20s I met my ex-wife and we had our son.

So the NHS taught me that in every cloud there is a silver lining.

Gareth Gault, 49, Southend-on-Sea, Essex