NHS cured a lifetime of pain

SEVENTY years ago at the age of 11 I broke my left leg, which left me with a limp. Three years later at the age of 14 I broke the same leg again in the same place. This left me with a more pronounced limp as my leg was now half an inch shorter than my right leg.

Consequently I hated walking but loved cycling which was pain-free enjoyable exercise. My gammy leg did not prevent me from sprinting fairly fast and I won several races as a member of Wakefield Harriers.

My speed enabled me to be a fairly successful wingman at rugby league, but a broken collar bone made me painfully aware that I did not want another broken leg so I retired from rugby. My short leg was now affecting my hip joint which began to ache frequently.

At the age of 81 years, I opted for a new hip joint. On January 24, I entered Pontefract Hospital for my operation under the care of Mr M Binns, a Pontefract orthopaadic surgeon. Five minutes before the operation, I asked Mr Binns if he could restore my leg to its normal length.

“I will do my best,” he replied. Just one month later I had discarded crutches and walking sticks and now walk normally without pain.

Where do I start to say thank you? God bless our NHS.

Saved by his cigarette case

From: John Ackerley, Yapham Mill, Pocklington, York.

THE life of my father, RF Ackerley MC, was definitely saved by his silver cigarette case (Yorkshire Post, March 1).

On April 16, 1918, while attacking a German machine gun post, a sniper’s bullet was deflected from his heart by 
the case.

The shattered but intact cigarette case, still with one remaining cigarette in it, can be seen together with other items of my father’s equipment and citations, together with his war memoirs, in the Lancashire Fusiliers Museum in Bury.