I've just got back from spending an inadvertent 4 days in hospital. I had a sudden onset of a bladder infection on Sunday morning, which required urgent investigation and (very painful) treatment. The details would be too eye-watering for you to read, so you're saved from them - THIS time.

I honestly thought that was it - I was a goner - until they reassured me it wasn't life-threatening. I'm just glad I overrode the temptation to leave it and "see what happens", because I KNOW that would've been the end of me. I was losing way too much blood. And the thought of never seeing my nephew grow up is too much for me to even contemplate.

Thanks to the skill and dedication of the medical staff at the local National Health Service hospital I am here to tell the tale. We British often moan about it, but I have been saved too many times by it to complain for too long. The truth is, we're lucky to have it. I would probably never have survived childhood if there was no NHS.