Last weekend it was reported that Nigel Farage said we should look at different health funding models, essentially spelling the end of our NHS as we know it. I want to tell your readers why the NHS is so important to me: From giving my dad his hearing back to caring for us when my wife miscarried and everything in between.

My story starts in 1948, weeks after the birth of the NHS, my dad was born with haemolytic disease and needed a blood transfusion. He lost his hearing in one ear but survived. Fast-forward 35 years and hearing in his other ear went totally and he was made redundant as a result.

Fast-forward 15 more years. I’m 10 by this point and my dad’s rebuilt his career but never heard me speak. The NHS performed life changing brain surgery, inserting a Cochlear implant that near enough fully restored his hearing. Life irrevocably changed for our family.

I still remember the ‘switch on’ day. After 15 years of deafness the surgeon flipped the switch to turn the implant on and then assured me and my mum that “he probably won’t hear anything for weeks”: My dad butted in that he could hear him perfectly well thank-you.

Fast-forward another 15 years and my mum developed a severe bowel obstruction completely out of the blue with a caecal volvulus. Surgeons (and other wonderful professionals) rushed in in the middle of the night and saved her life by cutting half her bowel out. Another life-changing intervention from our NHS.

Fast forward 4 years and the NHS helped us welcome our first child. My parents first grandchild, that they can see and hear thanks to the NHS. 18 months later the NHS held my and my wife’s hand as she had a miscarriage. Since then the NHS helped us welcome 2 more happy, healthy children to the world.

Throughout all of this we never had to worry about how we would pay. We couldn’t have afforded my dad’s cochlear implant privately. My parents both would have struggled to get health insurance. The NHS was always just there for us. To care for us in our darkest moments.

I’ve spent my entire professional life trying to repay some of the debt I owe to the NHS and provide the same amazing care to others which countless nurses, doctors, surgeons, physios and others have given my family. Labour have already started the process of rebuilding our NHS. I won’t let it be torn down by Nigel Farage or anyone else.

The NHS is a beautiful, wonderful endeavour. A revolutionary social policy to prove that humans really can care for one another no matter what their situation. It’s not perfect, nothing is, and we should strive to improve it but we must fight for it.

This is just my story. Many of you will have your own stories of how the NHS has shaped and changed your lives. Nye Bevan said “The NHS will last as long as there are folk left with the faith to fight for it”. I will fight, and I know there’s thousands of others in Sheffield who will join me.

Dr Alexander Burnett Labour Councillor in Penistone and Stocksbridge and NHS Oncology Consultant. All views are my own.