'My mother was a proud nurse - the NHS was both her livelihood and her lifeline'

Of the five missions I have set out for the next Labour Government, the one closest to my heart is building an NHS fit for the future.

As a boy, I spent many long days and nights in hospital with my mum.

She had been a proud nurse, and her great joys in life were looking after her family and the patients on her ward.

But after she was diagnosed with a rare illness, the health service changed from being her livelihood to her lifeline. That experience shaped me profoundly.

It’s why I now see it as my job to get the NHS off life support and back to a clean bill of health.

I will forever be grateful to the nurses who cared for my mum round the clock, the doctors who provided life-extending treatment, the staff who looked after me as I waited by her bedside.

'On the NHS’s 75th anniversary I want to say thank you to all the staff,' writes the Labour leader (PA)

It was thanks to the NHS that she defied the diagnosis that said she would never have children.

And it was the founding principles of the health service that meant my mum could afford care in the first place.

When a loved one falls ill you have many worries, but one thing you never have to consider is the bill.

That is a godsend to working class families like mine.

On the NHS’s 75th anniversary I want to say thank you to all the staff. I know how hard you work, how dedicated you are, and how much you sacrifice.

But I also feel your frustration with the current state of the service.

I know you don’t want more empty claps – you want change. Because without that change, the struggles endured over the last decade will continue and patients will suffer, staff will burn out.

The truth is, the NHS is a service, not a shrine.

It’s fantastic to be celebrating 75 years – but the question we should be asking is how it can be ready for the next 75?

Embracing new technologies, focusing on preventing illnesses in the first place rather than simply treating them, ensuring we have far more care in the community – these are the building blocks of that better, future-proofed health service.

Labour created the NHS in the face of Tory opposition.

The task of rebuilding it will fall to us.

Make no mistake – we are ready to take on that mission.