Matron, Medicine and Me: 70 Years of the NHS

Fern Britton returns to Stoke Mandeville hospital to retrace the dramatic story of how the NHS saved her life. In 2016 whilst recovering at home from surgery, Fern was suddenly rushed into hospital and diagnosed with E coli and sepsis. She was immediately brought into emergency surgery that ultimately saved her life. She meets the surgeon who operated on her and the consultant who diagnosed her, to say thank you and find out more about the condition that nearly killed her. When Fern came in, her samples were sent to the pathology lab for analysis. Fern visits one of the NHS's busiest pathology labs, which processes 70,000 samples a day, to find out how it works and what has changed over the years. Fern also finds out how the NHS is fighting the war against superbugs though cleaning.

Si King returns to the north east of England to retrace a period where the NHS was critical in saving his life. In 2014 he was diagnosed with a brain aneurysm and rushed to surgery. The procedure was known as an occlusion, and the aim was to relieve pressure on Si's brain and stop the bleeding. The vast majority of people who get such a diagnosis either die or suffer permanent disabilities, so when Si awoke afterwards with only confusion he was extremely lucky. So much so that he hasn't really looked back, instead choosing to get on with life in the years since. That has left him feeling that he hasn't taken time to properly reflect on what happened or to say thank you. Si returns to the emergency ward and the neurology department to meet patients who are going through what he went through and the staff who are helping them.

Dr Rangan Chatterjee returns to Manchester to reunite with the team who cared for his father, and he explores how the NHS has treated kidney disease through the years. For years, Rangan's dad suffered from a condition known as lupus, which eventually led to kidney failure. Like 64,000 people every year in the UK, he was in urgent need of dialysis, and ultimately new kidneys. After undergoing dialysis 12 hours a week for 14 years, and never receiving a transplant, Rangan's father passed away at Manchester Royal Infirmary. Rangan returns for the first time to the ward where his dad was treated and hears stories of his time there. He meets patients at who rely on dialysis and the patients trained by the NHS to dialyse at home. Rangan also meets the NHS patients whose lives have been completely transformed after receiving a transplant.

Cerrie Burnell, who was born with one arm which ends near the elbow, looks at how the NHS has served disabled people across its history. Cerrie meets different people, from Louise, a thalidomide survivor to Paolo, a recent double amputee because of illness, to get their perspective. She also returns to the Queen Mary's Hospital, Roehampton, where, as a little girl, she was brought to get fitted with a prosthetic arm. Cerrie freely admits it was a traumatic experience as she never wanted one in the first place. Now she goes back to find out if the attitude to disabled people - and disabled children in particular - has changed in the years since.

Denise Lewis returns to New Cross Hospital in Wolverhampton to retrace her grandmothers' footsteps, who worked as a nurse for 40 years after arriving from Jamaica in the 1950s. Through meeting current and former NHS staff, Denise sees how the NHS has changed and what her grandmother's experiences would have been. Denise explores what has changed at the hospital since her grandmother worked there, getting a glimpse into their new heart and lung centre and witnessing the cutting-edge surgery that the NHS provides. But there is another, even more personal reason that Denise wants to return - for the hospital her nan worked in is the one which treated and cared for her before she passed away in 2005 from breast cancer. Denise visits the ward her nan was treated in and hears stories of life in the NHS today from patients and staff there.