Aneira Thomas has relied on the NHS all of her life, through births and bereavements, accidents and emergencies, good times and bad.

When she was born at one minute past midnight on July 5, 1948, nurses and midwives at Amman Valley Hospital, Carmarthenshire asked if they could name her after the founder of the NHS, Aneurin Bevan.

Their excitement stemmed from the fact that she was the first baby to be born into a state-funded system that promised “cradle to grave” care.

“People all around the country were waiting for the first baby to be born in the new health service,” said Mrs Thomas, of Loughour, near Swansea. “My mum had a hard labour, about 18 hours. She used to tell me how excited the nurses and midwives were when I came into the world. They were so happy, they asked my mother if she’d let them choose my name.”

If she had arrived any earlier, her parents might have had to pay one shilling and sixpence for medical help – a lot of money for her father, Willie, who was earning £2 a week as a miner at the Great Mountain pit in Tumble.

“The midwife then was the lady next door,” Mrs Thomas said.

So began a lifetime of links with the health service, as patient, mother, wife and nurse.

“I’ve given birth to my two children at the local hospital, had all the GP visits and occasional accidents when they were growing up, but I suppose I’m one of many people who can say that the NHS has saved my life, not once but twice, when I had to be revived from anaphylactic shocks,” she said. “It has also saved my son, when he suffered a brain haemorrhage and my grandson when he went into a coma.”

When she was 40, Mrs Thomas suffered a headache, and took a medicine containing codeine, which triggered a severe allergic reaction. It is a condition that has been with her ever since, requiring NHS care.

“The last time was really bad. I rang my local health centre as soon as I realised and the local GP came running down the street in his wellies to give me adrenaline and pack me off to hospital before I collapsed. I was later told he’d only just got there in time.”

Mrs Thomas has, like her three sisters, spent most of her working life as a psychiatric nurse, and her daughter is now an ambulance technician.

Not all her experiences of the NHS have been positive. Mrs Thomas lost her husband of 40 years, Dennis, to a brain tumour just before Christmas. The condition was diagnosed late and left him with only weeks to live.

“He had suffered a stroke and the doctors said everything was down to that, he didn’t say he had been in pain, there was no brain scan, and by the time we found out the cancer had spread all through his body.

“We were promised palliative care but it never came – my daughter had to help her dad through it instead.”

Despite her loss, Mrs Thomas said that Britain was lucky to have the NHS. “I put it down to human error but of course there’s room for improvement in all areas. I think nurses spend less time with patients than they used to, they have all this paperwork and there are so many targets and management pressure. There are lots of carers at home looking after their families – some things there should be addressed as well.

“But on the whole I think we are very, very fortunate. I suppose we all take the NHS for granted. I shudder to think what it was like before. People are now living longer and medical technology has improved, but to be able to pick up the phone and dial 999, without hesitation of what it might cost or if anyone will listen – that’s a wonderful thing.”

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