Emotional tributes as Cumbria health campaigners rally for the NHS

More than 150 people attended the event in Carlisle yesterday, to call on politicians to invest in the health service.

Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn had been due to speak at the event, but cancelled when national campaigning was initially suspended following Saturday’s terror attack.

Organisers Cumbria Health Campaigns Together said they thought about whether or not to go ahead in the wake of the tragedy – but decided it was the right thing to do.

However, protesters were invited to bring flowers and heart placards as a show of respect for the victims.

The tone also changed to reflect Saturday night’s events, with speakers focusing on the NHS staff who worked to help those injured.

Helen Davison, from the group, said she was glad they had gone ahead with the rally.

“It felt like the right thing to do. I feel emotional about it,” she said.“For me, all this has highlighted the critical role that our NHS staff play.

“They come out in an emergency, putting their own safety aside, to save people’s lives.”

Introducing a one-minute silence at the start of the event, one of the speakers, Henry Goodwin, said: “What we need to do is come together, to offer our sympathy and support for all the victims and the families, and for all the public – the Londoners running around helping each other in this great sense of community, despite these forces trying to divide us.”

The rally, a follow up to an 800-strong Our NHS march in Carlisle back in April, was a cross-party event timed ahead of the General Election focusing on NHS pressures and potential privitisation.

All of Carlisle’s four candidates were invited to take part, with local campaigning continuing as normal for all parties.

However, only Labour’s Ruth Alcroft turned out, giving a poignant speech that had been toned down following the tragedy.

She said: “What should have been a celebration of all that is good in our NHS, and a rally to fight to keep it in our hands, must now, rightly, be muted out of respect for those who have lost their lives.”

Instead she said it was a chance to think about the NHS and its future, and urged people to defy the terrorists by using their freedoms to cast their vote later this week.

Mrs Alcroft didn’t speak about Labour party policy, but instead urged people to do their research and read the various party manifestos before heading to the polls.

Afterwards she said: “It’s really important that it still went ahead. There’s a huge feeling that we shouldn’t be held to ransom by terrorism.

“We are here because the NHS is something people care about. I’m really proud we still managed to come together.”

There were several other speakers at the event, with members of the public invited to take to the mic at the end.

Simon Fielder, from Workington, told the crowd: “I have autism and I can tell you it was the NHS that helped me find out who I am.”

The event was attended by health activists, patients, NHS staff and union representatives from across the county.

Simone Soars, 17, from Carlisle, and her friends were among those who laid flowers to pay their respects.

She said she was there to support the health service, which she feels is under threat.

“I want to be a doctor so I’d like to have an NHS to work in by the time I graduate,” she said.

NHS worker Geraldine Crook, a community physiotherapist, also brought flowers to lay in the city centre.

She said: “I had planned to come anyway, just to hear what the political parties were going to say about the NHS before the election.

“It’s very sad that this awful attack has happened, and that Jeremy Corbyn couldn’t come. I would have liked to hear him speak.”

David Atkinson, of Unison, said: “I think it was important it went ahead. These things can’t deter us. This is about public services. Unison members were among those working through the night in London to help the victims. It’s poignant. The tone was right.”

The other candidates standing in Carlisle at the General Election are: Fiona Mills (Ukip), John Stevenson (Cons), Peter Thornton (Lib).