ABERGAVENNY residents are invited to join a fun parade to celebrate the seventieth birthday of the National Health Service on Saturday October 6th.

Linda Ruhemann of organisers, Abergavenny Labour Party, stated, ‘People are coming along in costumes from seventy years of the NHS. There will be a “patient” in a hospital bed, doctors and nurses.

‘We are inviting NHS staff to come in uniform if appropriate and other members of the public to join us in costumes. Prizes will be offered for the best child and adult outfits.’

Assembling opposite the Grofield Inn on Baker Street, the parade will start at 11.45am and make its way up Frogmore Street to St John’s Square. The Mayor, Councillor Teslin Davies, will give a speech of welcome and introduce special guest speaker Vaughan Gething AM, Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Services in the Welsh Government. Health Service trade unions have also been invited to send speakers.

There will be music along the route and in the square where the Mayor will judge costumes and award prizes which have been donated by Unite.

The parade has been planned by members of the local Labour Party to celebrate the legacy of Nye Bevan,who was instrumental in bringing the NHS into being in 1948.

‘Nye was only too well aware of how working people suffered from a lack of free healthcare. He was determined to create a health service that was free for all at the point of need and not just for those who could afford to pay’, added Linda. ‘We think that’s something well worth celebrating.’