DEAR NHS: THIS IS GOING TO HELP….
Dawn French, Graham Norton and Konnie Huq are among the household names who are helping doctor-turned-author Adam Kay send a powerful message to medics
Adam Kay on the famous faces who helped him give back for a new book
When it comes to the NHS, Adam Kay describes himself as a ‘frequent flyer’. The doctor-turned-comedian and author of bestselling memoir This Is Going To Hurt has had his fair share of scrapes over the years, from running into a dinner lady at school and banging his head aged seven, to breaking his ankle on three separate occasions. ‘To use a driving test analogy, I’ve been fortunate to only have minor faults rather than majors,’ he says. ‘But every time, the NHS was there for me. It is our country’s single greatest achievement.’
After studying medicine at Imperial College London, Adam specialised in obstetrics and gynaecology and was a practising doctor for six years. In that time, he kept a diary documenting his experiences, from the funny (at one point, the £3 an hour parking meter at the hospital was earning more than he was), to the poignant, wondering whether he was the only junior doctor who escaped to the toilets to cry when it all got too much. In 2010, physically and mentally burned out, he realised things had to change.
‘I think a lot about why I wanted to be a doctor,’ he says now. ‘I wish I could say it was for a great romantic reason but, in fact, it was because I was from a family of doctors so it was in my veins from a very young age. You make that decision as a teenager, which is a very bad age to decide anything, let alone what you want to do for the rest of your life.’
Since leaving medicine, Adam has carved a new career from his experiences, from two acclaimed books to his successful UK tour, mixing comedy with witty, medicine-inspired songs. However, behind the laughs is a deep, unwavering love for the NHS, and it is clear that his caring instinct remains woven into the fibre of who he is today. ‘When lockdown was announced, I felt helpless,’ he admits. ‘I was too long out of the game to be on the front line and I just kept thinking “what can I do?”’
The answer to this lay in the form of a new book, Dear NHS: 100 Stories To Say Thank You, in which 109 (not 100, as per the title!) famous faces share their memories of Britain’s health system. ‘Asking people to be involved was like sending out wedding invitations,’ he says. ‘You send a few too many, because you assume there’ll be people who can’t make it. Well, practically everyone said yes and we’d already announced the title.’ All proceeds will be donated to NHS Charities Together, as well as to The Lullaby Trust, the premature baby charity that Adam has supported throughout his career.
‘I realise how lucky I am to have a platform,’ he says. ‘It’s a big responsibility to use my voice to hopefully help in little ways, and I’m really proud of how this book has turned out. The stories are so varied, from the funny to the poignant to the tragic. It just goes to show that whoever you are, however famous or whatever you’ve done, you are just a person who relies on the NHS, like all of us.’ So, how does Adam see the NHS’S future? ‘When coronavirus is a thing of the past,
I hope what will remain for us all is gratitude,’ he says. ‘The aim of this book is to provide a morale and cash boost to charities that need it but, most of all, I’m hopeful that we will never again have to see the heartbreaking news reports of staff with inadequate PPE begging for help, putting themselves at risk simply to do their jobs. It’s a case of hoping that nothing like this ever happens again, but making sure that if it does, we’re in a better position. I am grateful beyond words for the NHS. My wish for the future is that we all value it and never, ever take it for granted because we don’t realise just how lucky we are.’
Adam talks about some of the people who contributed their stories for the book.
GRAHAM NORTON As a student, Graham Norton was stumbling home from a party in London when he was subjected to a violent mugging attack. He was hit over the head multiple times and stabbed in the chest. Dragging himself to his feet, he rang multiple doorbells until an elderly couple called an ambulance. He had lost over half his blood.
Graham’s story is a real shocker. Part of me was expecting a jolly anecdote, so to read about this funny, chatty person we all recognise bleeding to death on someone’s doormat really stopped me in my tracks. It was very brave of Graham to share such a personal, dramatic and upsetting story. It’s a reminder to us all that the NHS is there for the serious stuff, when it really matters.
MARIAN KEYES When we talk about the NHS, mental health is very often, sadly, forgotten. That’s why I was so grateful to Marian Keyes for sharing her story about the lowest point in her life; the moment in 1994 when she felt she couldn’t cope any longer and took multiple sleeping tablets and antidepressants. Drifting in and out of consciousness, she rang a friend, who rang an ambulance. She was taken to St Mary’s Hospital in Paddington – the place, incidentally, where I trained as a doctor – and the staff there
My wish is that we never take the NHS for granted
However famous you are, you are just a person who relies on the NHS, like all of us
saved her life. Since that day, Marian hasn’t had a drink. She realised she was using alcohol to mask her unhappiness. Her openness is so valuable, and I really hope it will encourage more conversations, as well as increased funding for crucial mental health services.
DAWN FRENCH Dawn French’s contribution is a love letter to the people who cared for her mum, who died of cancer in Derriford Hospital. She writes about the strange comfort that hospitals can bring, even in the most difficult of times, and how her mum’s experience taught her that a good death is possible; that it’s ‘okay to die’.
The reassurance staff give to people and their families is so important to remember and Dawn’s writing literally made me cry. She remembers her mother’s final breaths, Dawn’s beautifully crafted staccato sentences bringing a shortness of breath to the writing, too. Her experience speaks to the mixed emotions that we have in hospitals – the sadness and the anger, the thanks as well as the love. It’s important to remember that hospitals are not just places of torment. They can also be places of peace.
KONNIE HUQ Konnie talks so movingly about losing her mum to dementia, and she heartbreakingly interlaces stories of her kids learning things for the first time, just as her mum forgets them. The parallels she draws with the healthcare system in Bangladesh are striking, sobering and yet another reminder of how lucky we are to have the NHS. The fact is that none of us know what’s around the corner, but we have the world’s best insurance policy. I adore Konnie’s children’s books, so it came as no surprise at all that she wrote something so beautiful and emotive. EMMA THOMPSON A call in the middle of the night is every parent’s nightmare. Our nearest and dearest needing to be rushed to hospital is one of the things we all fear the most and Emma’s account of when she experienced this with her daughter, Gaia, is no exception. It happened when Gaia was 18 and had slipped over at a house party, hitting her head on a sharp tile. When Emma and her husband, Greg Wise, arrived in A&E, the junior doctor in charge asked if they minded if he quickly wolfed down a sandwich because he had been too busy to eat. Thankfully, Gaia was fine, but in retelling this story, Emma makes a serious political point. She describes medical staff as ‘the indispensables’, explaining that they are the ones standing between us and calamity. Clapping – and meaning it – is, of course, a good thing, but in order for our NHS to continue and thrive, financial backing is crucial. In Emma’s words: ‘I hope we will come to realise what is important: not profit, but people.’
Dear NHS: 100 Stories To Say Thank You (Trapeze) edited by Adam Kay is out now. All profits from the sale of the book go to NHS Charities Together and The Lullaby Trust