FROM THE EDITOR: Help us say thank you to Weston Park Hospital for 50 years of kindness and hope

Today, Weston Park Hospital celebrates 50 years of saving lives and leading the battle against cancer.

What a difference those incredible NHS staff have made to so many patients, their families and this city.

I know many of you reading this will be thinking of loved ones who are no longer here but benefited in their final days from the unswerving dedication of those wonderful human beings.

I know because, like most Sheffielders, far too many of those I love have needed their services.

I have sat in that building and held the hand of a very close friend as he took his last breath – surrounded by the much needed and unending warmth of a wonderful team.

That day was one of the worst me and my mum have ever been through together but the feeling that we weren’t on our own meant so much.

We will never be able to explain to those nurses and doctors what a ray of light they were in terrible darkness.

I have also celebrated with friends who have rung that all important bell on their way out at the end of their final treatment.

We feared one of my dearest friends would die when she was diagnosed with aggressive cancer in her 30s. She was a young mum and, if it hadn’t been for that same team, her teenage daughter would have had to face life without her.

For that, we are eternally grateful in a way that none of us can sufficiently express.

Weston Park Hospital has impacted on most Sheffielder’s lives.

That is why we are asking for your message of thanks and your memories for a very special edition of The Star which we are printing on Saturday.

Thanks to sponsorship from Westfield Health, we will be delivering hundreds of free copies of our souvenir paper to Weston Park to be shared amongst staff and patients.

That means those teams will read your messages and see just how much every single one of them means to this city.

Email me – [email protected] – with your memories, thanks or photos and we’ll include them in Saturday’s celebration edition.

Thanks to everyone at Weston Park for being there for us through bad and good. We don’t know how you do it – and always with a smile – but we are very grateful that you do.