Medical staff, patients and a host of others gathered at Dorset County Hospital to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the National Health Service. There was awards, speeches and a giant cake – as well as a chance to meet two people born at the hospital in the very year the health service was founded.

Richard Gillingham was born on July 21, 1948, less than two weeks after the inception of the National Health Service.

He was as such one of the first babies to be delivered by the new service, though he was beaten to it – by 10 minutes - by his twin sister Caryl, now Caryl Webb, whom ill-health prevented from attending Monday's tea-party, held at the hospital's Damer's restaurant.

Mr Gillingham, who now lives with his wife Jill in his home-town Bridport after years living in London, said he was 'very grateful' for the health service.

"Without the medical technology provided for free, giving birth would have been very different, and much more difficult," he told the Echo. "The NHS was vital in helping mothers overcome any problems."

Mr Gillingham argued that public feeling towards the service remained strikingly positive.

"The overwhelming view that people have is one of pride, and gratitude, that we have it," he said. "For me, using NHS services has always been a good experience."

No fewer than five generations of one family were also in attendance to celebrate the NHS' place in Dorset's healthcare.

Penny Gray, chairman of the charitable Dorchester Opportunity Group, missed out on an NHS birth by a matter of months, coming into the world in February 1948. Her mother, Peggy Denty, 89, said it was a shame to have so narrowly missed the new service for her daughter's birth, but added that it could have been worse. "I still remember, as a young girl, seeing the doctor come on horseback to deliver babies!" she laughed.

Ms Gray's daughter Bridget Haime, grand-daughter Kirsty Harrison and great-grandson Stanley George had also come along for the event. "We've all got close links to the NHS," Ms Gray said. "Whether it's through work or as patients. It's such a good service, and it's important to celebrate it through events like these."

The tea-party also celebrated third-sector groups who went the extra mile to help DCH patients - literally in the case of the Wessex 4x4 Response team, who between them drove a total of some 10,000 miles along dangerous road during the snowy blasts that hit the county in late spring, transporting patients to and from DCH.

"We did more than 100 trips in total," said Matt Reeve, who coordinated the group's missions from a base at Winfrith Technology Centre.

One of the drivers present, Freya Puttock, said that the journeys had been 'very dangerous' but necessary.

"As well as people needing urgent treatment, there were also patients literally stuck at DCH," said Ms Puttock, who also works full-time at the hospital as an occupational therapist.

Before the cutting of the NHS birthday cake, hospital trust chairman Mark Addison gave a speech praising the continued good work of the NHS, while chief executive Patricia Miller handed awards to staff considered 'hospital heroes' for their hard work, with certificates given to workers from surgeons and consultants to bereavement staff and cleaners.

Speaking afterwards to the Echo, Ms Miller said she shared in the pride in the NHS.

"It means so much to staff and patients," she said. "Where would we be without it?"