Episode 5 A Picture of Health

In these days of transplants and life-saving medicines,

I think it's too easy to take for granted

the amazing things our doctors do for us.

We forget just how far we've come in our lifetime.

So I'm going to take us on a journey to remind us how things used to be.

I'm Larry Lamb, welcome to A Picture Of Health.

Coming up on A Picture of Health...

the tiny baby who made medical history.

Every day, we count our blessings

that we were lucky enough to be involved.

'Stop it, you.'

The films that taught us how to live healthier lives.

'What do you think you're up to?

'You've probably infected thousands of people already.'

Love them or hate them, we remember how specs used to be.

We were just so grateful to be able to see.

We didn't care what they looked like.

And Larry's special guest in the Picture Of Health surgery today

is one of our favourite actors, Derek Fowlds,

who will relive some of his medical memories.

-I didn't wear glasses till about five years ago.

-Did you not?

-No.

-What, your eyes were OK?

-They were brilliant.

-I think they're fabulous.

Quite fabulous.

The first heart transplant in the world

was performed in 1967 by Doctor Christiaan Barnard.

But it took years to perfect an operation

that, nowadays, is considered commonplace.

1987, and a major medical breakthrough was made.

For the first time in this country,

surgeons replaced the heart of a dying baby.

And the baby survived.

Britain's youngest surviving heart transplant patient

is progressing well at Newcastle's Freeman Hospital.

If I didn't have a transplant,

I wouldn't be talking to you now, I'd be dead.

So it's... It can't be any simpler than that, really.

Everything has to have a pioneer to push the boundaries.

And it took a lot of courage to go into the unknown, really.

This is the story of how a five-month-old little girl

made medical history.

Kaylee was born in April 1987.

She was a healthy baby in the early days

but, at 5 months old, her health seemed to be deteriorating.

She wouldn't drink. One day, one Sunday afternoon,

she wouldn't drink anything.

She was making a groaning noise

And because, obviously, she was still being breast-fed,

she wasn't eating anything.

And that really concerned me. She wouldn't even take water.

Within a day, Kaylee was in hospital, fighting for her life.

This tiny baby had a virus and her heart was failing.

We were just devastated.

The team sat us down and said that there is one option.

However, it's a chance in a lifetime, really.

Surgeons told Carol they could try and replace her baby's heart.

But this was a procedure that came with huge risks.

Lynne Holt is a transplant co-ordinator at the Freeman Hospital in Newcastle.

What's she doing?

In 1987, she was on duty when Kaylee was rushed in

and became the family's main point of contact.

My job, as transplant coordinator, was obviously to give information,

support the family and they just...

they put their trust in us, which was amazing.

The two options were that we list Kaylee for transplant

and we put our faith in the doctors.

Or we make her comfortable and we let her die.

And that wasn't an option at all.

The UK's first successful adult heart transplant took place in 1979

after years of research and several failed attempts.

Eight years later,

surgeons still hadn't successfully operated on a young baby.

With Kaylee fighting for her life, it was time to take another chance.

Initially, the big problem was,

would somebody donate a heart from a baby?

We hoped that somebody would be kind enough to think of another family

during their difficult times.

And we were so fortunate.

Amazingly, a father who'd lost his baby and his wife in an accident

gave his consent.

We think of that family all the time.

Sorry.

At half past nine in the evening on 13th October 1987,

Kaylee was taken into theatre to have her heart transplant.

And even though the team was experienced in this procedure,

this was new ground.

Back then, we didn't know if this little heart would grow with Kaylee.

Certainly, it was so small. I mean, my memory of it in the bowl,

carrying it from one theatre to the next door theatre,

was a very small plum.

The transplant coordinator Lynne Holt,

she came out of theatre all the time and explained to us

that she's on the bypass, they've taken her old heart out,

they've put her new heart in. So, we had breaks.

You know, every sort of hour or so, we got news,

which is quite unusual, but just to keep us in the loop.

They were told, we don't know whether this will work but it might.

And they just put their trust in us

and they coped amazingly for such young parents, I think.

And Kaylee made history.

The next day, everything seemed to just slot into place.

Having been attached to drips and monitors

and everything for such a long time,

just to be able to hold her and turn her round

and hug her into my chest, that was a magical moment.

Soon this little baby was well enough to leave intensive care

and quickly became worldwide news.

To go into the newsagents

and to look at all of the newspapers on the shelf

and find that Kaylee's story was on the front page of every one,

that's really when it hit us that it was major national news.

Over the years, Kaylee grew stronger and stronger...

..doing all the things a normal child would do...

..and getting involved in athletics

by competing in the World Transplant Games.

My highlight is probably Thailand 2007,

when I got 30.6 seconds in 200m.

It was amazing, loved it. Want to do it again.

She's a great young woman now.

She doesn't let her transplant stop her doing anything.

And I look forward to, hopefully, one day, going to her wedding.

And, you know, that's what we're looking...

You know, looking upwards and forwards always.

But the little girl who made medical history

owes it all to the surgeons who took a risk.

Without their dedication and their research,

there are so many people who just wouldn't be here today.

If pioneers don't exist, then you don't move forward.

So, because of them, that's why we're so successful now

in what we're doing and more lives are being saved.

Every day, we count our blessings that we were lucky enough

to be involved with such amazing people

and that they were available at the time.

And Carol's here in the Picture Of Health surgery.

-Hello, yes.

-Hello. Welcome.

-Thank you.

-What a great story.

What a story. What a story. I watched you when you were...

-I know.

-..looking at the film.

-Yes.

-When we got that bit when we were talking about

that wonderful man that donated the heart, eh?

What a big thing to have done.

It's the most amazing gift and nothing we ever say will show how...

The thanks that we owe the decision, that gentleman, Kaylee's life.

The thing, the recurring theme of this is this extraordinary back up

that you get in these circumstances from the people like Lynne Holt,

the nurse that's your sort of, I don't know, your contact point.

Lynne's a very dear friend to this day and she was our rock,

if you like, throughout a very, very dramatic journey.

And we were in the right place at the right time.

And, you know, even if it had been, potentially, weeks or months before,

previously, babies with cardiomyopathy,

viral cardiomyopathy, which is the disease Kaylee had,

caused by a virus, it could have been anybody, the babies died.

-There was no hope.

-No.

So, to be placed in that position, to be...

To live where we did live,

where the Freeman Hospital had just been designated

the third centre in the UK for heart transplants.

Yeah.

-Just to be in that position is a miracle in itself.

-Yeah.

-To be offered that opportunity. For Kaylee, this is normal.

-Yeah.

And for our early years,

she just presumed that everybody went to hospital.

In fact, she presumed a television crew

came to everybody's house when it was their birthday.

And that was one of the funny things she told us

as her perception, as she got older.

But she's very special.

She has a very ordinary life and she just gets on with life.

-Yeah.

-She's one of life's survivors.

-I bet.

Is it a common complaint in babies? The condition that she had.

-I mean, is it...?

-Cardiomyopathy is a virus that people can catch.

It could happen to anybody.

Kaylee was a very small baby, she'd been to very limited places.

You know, my parents, my husband's parents.

-She'd been to the shops.

-Yeah.

And we protected her as best we could, like any other new parents.

Made sure that the bottles were sterilised properly,

our home was a clean and welcoming environment.

And that still happened to us.

I struggled for a long time with guilt that perhaps, you know,

that it was my fault.

Had I not done something to care for her?

It's not a congenital thing. It's a viral thing.

This could happen to anybody and a lot of, not just children,

but adults as well are given new hearts for this particular disease.

I mean, I think the thing is,

we're so used to all these extraordinary medical events

and medical advancements, constantly now,

that we tend to take things for granted.

And it's like, "Oh, yeah, a heart transplant."

-Remember, was it Christiaan Barnard who was the first?

-Yeah.

-What year was that? 19...

-1967.

-Yeah.

And now, the things they do now.

-Yeah.

-It's amazing. We don't know how lucky we are, do we?

For the past 24 years, we've advocated organ donation.

To try and explain to the general public that we were a normal family

and this extraordinary thing happened to us.

-That could be a member of your family.

-Yeah.

-Yes.

-True.

-Thank you for sharing that with us. Lovely.

-You're welcome.

-Yeah, thank you, Carol.

-Fantastic.

-That's lovely.

We all think that the world is constantly changing

but when it comes to health care,

some things stay the same, generation after generation.

For decades, the government has been telling us all how to behave.

'Don't buy them singly, buy stamps in books.'

We, as a race, are lazy.

We need to be reminded of the most basic things.

This waste must stop.

From how to save fuel,

how to protect our kids,

even how to walk down the stairs.

I know people who are quite offended

you know, "Who do they think we are? They think we're all stupid."

Most of us are, actually, you know.

The original public information films were made by the Ministry of Information,

a government department responsible for publicity and propaganda.

After the War, attention was turned to the nation's well-being.

It was a bad time for health.

We had leftovers from the War like bugs and fleas

which could come through your wall at any moment.

People were very careless about health in a way, I suppose.

We soldiered on. And we didn't complain.

The government needed to get the country thinking differently about health.

With television yet to catch on,

the perfect place to play the films was the cinema.

If it said, "There now follows a public safety announcement."

And it would be a film about the dangers of swimming on a full stomach.

The dangers of touching pylons.

So you'd believe that stuff

and they made it quite wittily and cleverly.

'You may have met a few people who like doing this sort of thing.

'They're a nuisance, I agree. But pretty harmless.

'You have certainly seen thousands like this.

'They're not a nuisance, they're a real danger.'

At a time when disease and illness were rife,

the government's priority was to try and stop the spread of germs.

And so came this film, Coughs And Sneezes, the first of its kind.

'Come here, what do you think you're up to?'

It was a film that featured a man who didn't know anything about hankies.

And they showed him how to use a hanky on screen.

I thought, "He's a nutter."

'What do you think this is for?'

People were very concerned about the spreading of colds

Cos, you know, people were off work with things.

I don't know. Cos if you went into the office and you had a bad cold,

next thing is everyone else in the office.

So they tried to persuade people to be more conscious of it

which is a good thing.

It was quite light-hearted.

The first time I heard people laugh out loud was at this nutter,

getting pepper shaken on him and sneezing.

He became an extra feature, really.

'Handkerchief. Sneeze.

'Sneeze. Handkerchief.'

And then, eventually, it became automatic.

They trained him to do... Every time he felt sneezy, he did it.

'Fine, now, you can carry on.

'Excellent. Remember, coughs and sneezes spread diseases.'

But spreading germs wasn't the only item

on the government's public health agenda.

In 1947, a Modern Guide To Health was made

to get the government's messages across.

An animation company called Halas and Batchelor

was commissioned to make the adverts.

A Modern Guide To Health used cartoon characters...

..to teach us all how to lead healthier lives in post-war Britain.

'Remember, sit tall.'

Animation, compared to live action,

is much more imaginative. You can tell a story more easily.

And it's also more engaging.

My parents used it as a way to get difficult messages across

in, for then, non-pompous and interesting and amusing way.

One of the main focuses of the animation was exercise.

'You will get no exercise queuing for a bus.'

It was important to train the country to be fit, if you like.

Not super fit, not Olympic standard but just be fitter than they were.

'Get what exercise and fresh air you can

'during your working day by walking or cycling.'

The Modern Guide To Health was very, very important

because we had people learning to take care of themselves

a bit better than they had.

The original public health films may be funny to watch these days

but the impact they had is undeniable.

'Flu viruses can spread

'if you don't catch your coughs or sneezes hygienically.'

When swine flu hit Britain in 2009,

the government's public health messages were exactly the same as in 1945.

'To prevent the spread of flu when you cough or sneeze,

'catch it in a clean tissue,

'bin it and kill it by washing your hands as soon as you can.'

It's easy to look back and sneer

and take the mickey about some of the early health education films.

"Coughs and sneezes spread diseases, catch them in your handker-cheeses."

But flash forward 50 years, we had an advert

and it had the same bloke sneezing and we saw the viruses go everywhere.

And in the same year,

animation was still being used to persuade us to exercise regularly.

'..give us the 60 minutes of activity us kids need.'

70 years on, it seems we still need to be told

how to do the simplest of things to keep healthy.

Anything you see from the '40s would look out-of-date

and slightly quirky and even quite hilarious.

But I think the basic messages are still true.

Politicians can very pompous when they tell you

how you should behave but I think it was done the best intention.

And some of it's paid off.

You need to be reminded because, fundamentally,

human beings are lazy and dirty and I count myself in that number.

Achoo.

It's interesting to think that a lot of those films

were made for audiences in cinemas, weren't they?

Yeah, I remember them because I went to the pictures

and there was always, years ago, there was always an A film

and then B film and, in the middle,

you got Movietone News and you got these, telling you what to do.

-You're not lazy and dirty, are you?

-I'm not.

He said we're all lazy and dirty.

Yeah, well, you know, the people are, some people are.

I suppose, back then, you know, cleanliness was a, you know,

it wasn't always easy to achieve

if you're living in a cold-water flat and no real means of heating water.

-Gas.

-Absolutely.

I remember when I was a kid, we used to light the gas at night.

-Yeah.

-And...

-Gas mantles.

-Gas mantles and there was a tin bath.

-Yeah.

-An outside toilet.

-Absolutely.

-It's terrible, isn't it?

-Absolutely.

Well, when I moved back with my grandmother,

we used to have to go to the town hall to get a bath.

-There was no bath in the house.

-No.

There was a lavatory in the back, a sink in the scullery

and you went to the town hall to what they called the slipper baths. That was it.

-They're just telling us what to do, how to live.

-It's propaganda.

And following on from the War when they had to control the population,

the people had to be told what to do.

I mean, that was a means of communicating.

We take it for granted now with television.

They can come on, they can transmit something straight to the public now.

But what we do now, we go regularly, we do have regular check-ups.

-We are more health-conscious.

-Yeah.

-We go to the doctor.

-I mean, some guys there, they would not go to the doctor ever.

-No.

-Now, I go all the time if there's something going on.

-Yeah.

I nip off and I think people now are so health-conscious

that they will go and get a check-up regularly.

You know, for teeth, eyes, you know, all that.

To live a long and healthy life.

-To live a long, and I'm 85 next birthday.

-Yeah, yeah, yeah.

No, you're not. You're not. You're a spring chicken.

In these days of glasses, contact lenses and laser surgery,

we have a good chance of maintaining good eyesight, even into old age.

But that wasn't always the case.

When the NHS was introduced in 1948,

free eye-care was available for all and demand was high.

'This man is one in 1,000,

'all engaged in one of the largest factories of its kind,

'supplying spectacles to meet the increased demands of Britain's health service.'

In the first two months alone,

two million pairs of glasses were dispensed.

People who had never had their eyes examined before

emerged from the woodwork

and the demand was immense.

Then, when they were prescribed spectacles,

there was an 18-month waiting list

before you received the finished product.

I remember the NHS glasses very well

cos my mum had them from a very early age.

And they were so hideous.

But, you see, at that time, we were just so grateful to be able to see.

We didn't care what they looked like.

Large swathes of the population may have been wearing them

but it wasn't long before NHS specs got a bad reputation.

At the time, many users of these spectacles hated them.

They thought that there was a stigma attached to the fact

that they'd been received either free of charge

or at subsidised rate.

I came from an ordinary, working class, East London family,

I was very short-sighted from the age of 10 or 11.

I went along, I got free glasses from the optician.

I had two choices. The John Lennons, no longer trendy.

Or these great, big, horn-rimmed things

which were the same size for anybody from the age of six to 16.

But you were quite clearly marked out. If you could only afford those

until you were 18 or 19, people thought, "You know what,"

they didn't think less of you but they knew you were hard-up.

My mother wouldn't allow me to have National Health glasses

cos they were real rings and there was no choice

and they were thick and ugly.

She wanted her little girl to have pretty glasses.

By the late 1950s, the austerity of post-war Britain was fading.

People had more money to spend and for eyewear designers

like Oliver Goldsmith, there were clear opportunities.

When you meet people who wear glasses,

the first thing you see are the glasses. You recognise them

and then you see the glasses. So, how nice it is

for a woman to receive a compliment about her glasses.

And that was my aim, was to try and produce designs

which would complement an outfit,

make a woman feel beautiful and happy to wear glasses.

This is a design which I created for Princess Grace of Monaco

and the feature of this frame, as you can see,

is the metal goes all the way around the front and through the sides.

Quite an unusual style, actually.

And she loved this

and she wore this one with tinted lenses on the ski slopes.

'There's no need to make a spectacle of yourself these days

'for glasses have become more than just a means of seeing better,

'they can be a fashionable addition to anyone's features.'

I remember I had an auntie and she had a pair

that would have made Dame Edna Everage jealous.

These weren't done as a joke,

these were those fantastic, swept-up ones, like Catwoman.

And they were the bee's proverbial knees.

They cost a fortune, I'm sure. They were a fashion accessory.

Because they framed the window of the soul, her lovely eyes.

MUSIC: "Pretty Woman" by Roy Orbison

Suddenly, it seemed that eyes were worth taking care of,

so you went along to your optician and you had eye tests

and then you had these amazing things you could wear.

'Each of the frames she has chosen is completely different and original.

'Space age, for example.'

I remember thinking, when I was young,

that glasses were so extraordinary and so gorgeous

that I would wear glasses with just plain glass in them.

'Suitable for the show and when she's out horseriding called Tally-ho.

'With extra-wide-angle lenses that are unbreakable.

'Who says men don't make passes at girls who wear glasses?'

# Oh, pretty woman. #

But despite the rise in high-fashion frames,

those ridiculed NHS specs still had their fans.

And pretty big fans at that.

This is the original design that John Lennon wore

of the only Oliver Goldsmith frame that he wore.

John Lennon was a very keen follower of National Health frames.

And... But this particular one is the one he wore.

The feature is the Windsor Bridge, this W-Bridge.

So, there's no need for nose pads on either side

and it would just sit onto the face very, very comfortably.

NHS specs were finally abolished along with free eye tests in 1989.

But while they were gone, they certainly weren't forgotten.

The irony is that now the stigma's been removed

because these things are no longer available,

you can buy vintage examples for enormous sums of money

and they're considered to have retro chic,

a cool quality about them.

Even though glasses had become popular, by the 1980s,

there were alternatives.

Today, an innovation is launched that puts the contact lens

into the same category as nappies and razors.

It's the day of the disposable contact lens.

For the first time since they were invented in the '40s,

the contact lens had become a popular

and affordable solution to poor eyesight.

'It's shaped like the eye and placed under the lid,

'just a wafer of curved, crystal glass.'

In the late 1940s, the cost of contact lenses was prohibitive

for all but the privileged few.

To buy a pair of contact lenses cost the same

as buying a small motor car or a diamond necklace.

Even if the cost didn't put you off,

lenses weren't for the faint-hearted.

Another factor was,

were you prepared to undergo the fitting process?

Which would involve the pouring of plaster into the eye

to make a mould.

So that the lens could be made to the exact shape

and allow the points of contact to be as comfortable as possible.

And in 1991, a third alternative emerged.

MUSIC: "Suddenly I See" by KT Tunstall

There is new hope for short-sighted people.

A few seconds under a laser beam can improve sight to such an extent

there may be no need to wear glasses or contact lenses.

20 years on, and around half a million people

have had laser eye surgery in the UK.

But even though there are alternatives out there,

glasses are still very popular and remain a firm fashion favourite.

It's quite extraordinary to watch the way it's come on, from that,

that thing that was a sort of great, big advance.

-All those years ago.

-I know.

But I've only just started wearing these. Do you like them?

I think they're fabulous.

Quite fabulous. They're very, very fetching, Derek.

-I didn't wear glasses till about five years ago.

-Did you not?

-No.

-What? Your eyes were OK?

-They were brilliant.

-Yeah.

-But then I started wearing glasses for reading.

-Yeah, yeah.

And then I've been told that it's...

I should wear these for long-distance.

And I find they really help me.

-So this is my new image.

-That's it. I think it... I think it's working.

-Get me some work.

-It'll get you a lot of work, Derek.

I tell you, get you a lot of work.

The thing with people, sort of, trying to escape

those horrific National Health rims.

But you couldn't have glasses. I mean, in the '30s and '40s,

-the kids didn't have them, did they?

-No.

-You couldn't get them.

-And, presumably, you just dealt with what your problems were.

-Yeah.

-The glasses you're wearing now...

-Are imitation National Health.

-Yeah, they are.

-You spend a fortune on them

so you look like everybody there was trying...

-Do you have other pairs when you go out at night?

-I do.

-Yeah, I have to.

-Do you change them?

-It change them regularly, yes.

The whole fashion side of it, I find that really interesting.

-Everybody really didn't want to wear glasses.

-Not like now.

I suppose a lot of people don't want to wear glasses now.

But then somebody gets hold of that

and turns it into another whole industry.

They started having the, you know, the lenses, the...

-Contacts.

-Contact lenses.

-Yeah.

-Cos they didn't want to wear glasses.

-And now laser. Laser's come in.

-Yeah.

-You've never thought about...?

-No.

-You don't want to do a laser?

I do fancy having somebody doing that to my eyes.

-So it's fashionable now to wear glasses.

-Yeah.

And all different shapes and sizes

and there doesn't seem to be any stigma with it at all, does there?

I think I'll go and buy another pair.

Yeah, I think perhaps you should.

Wherever you live in Britain, there's a good chance

that if you need to get to hospital in and emergency,

help will be on hand.

Even if you live in the middle of nowhere.

Every year, 19,000 people in the UK are flown by air ambulance.

-I've got a visual.

-It saves thousands of lives.

Steady, slide!

And is a service that we now take for granted.

But it only began 75 years ago.

The story begins in the remote islands and Highlands of Scotland.

Here, in the early 1900s,

the landscape and conditions were harsh.

Islanders often lived miles from the nearest town.

Medical help came by way of the local doctor.

'It's often 30 miles to see one patient.

'A day's journey there and back.'

And if their condition was serious, there were no local hospitals.

Before the air ambulance was set up,

if somebody had to be taken to the mainland for medical treatment,

it would often entail a journey of many hours.

People used to go from here to Oban

and you had to go on a ferry and then had to get the...

An ambulance would meet you at Kennacraig and take you to Oban

And it's a horrible journey, it's a very twisty road.

They weren't good in those days, the ambulances.

It must've been a horrendous journey for the patient to go up there.

Many patients simply didn't survive the journey.

But in the 1930s, air travel started to take off

and it wasn't long before doctors realised its potential.

If anyone had told me, 30 years ago,

that I would be telegraphing for specialists and for aeroplanes,

well, I would have warned him to keep away from the bottle.

Many of these people would have been too ill to endure a surface journey.

So it opened up a lifeline which hadn't previously existed.

People who would have died from the conditions they developed

now had a chance of survival.

People like John McDermott.

In May 1933, this Islay fishermen

became the air ambulance's first passenger.

Suffering acute stomach pains,

his doctor knew he needed urgent surgery and telegraphed for help.

This first rescue mission was successful and others followed.

'Message has just come through for an ambulance

'to take at case of sudden and serious illness to hospital.

'Time is everything. And the reply goes out.

'The air ambulance will soon be on its way.'

In the next decade, the Scottish air ambulance became well established.

Lily McRae was one of the many nurses

who volunteered to fly with the service.

She still remembers the excitement of her very first flight.

He put me at ease right away and he told me,

"Just to sit back, relax and enjoy the tour on the way up," he says.

"And if you can do anything for them on the way back, good luck."

That was what he said to me.

We had a medical box and we had oxygen.

You know, if a patient needed oxygen.

If they were needing injections or anything like that,

the doctor that took them to the aircraft would give them

anything that they needed for the flight.

A lot of the time, you were just reassuring them or, you know,

holding their hand, reassuring them and explaining to them

what would happen when they got to Glasgow.

'First aid is often given during the flight

'by these flying nurses of Scotland.

'They are volunteers and work in their off-duty time.

'That's a fact that should be broadcast.'

It wasn't all hard work, though.

The radio officer used to go and lie in the stretcher

and I went up beside the captain. That happened quite often.

But it was wonderful coming in if it was really a beautiful day.

You know, the view from up there sometimes.

'Nurse Monroe is no stranger to an air-view of Argyll.

'And no stranger to problems ahead. A tricky landing lies at the end of the flight.

'The sand runway at Barra can only be used

'for a few hours between tides.'

Bad weather, difficult landings and rough terrain

were all in a day's work for the ambulance's talented aviators.

The young men who were the pilots, and they were generally young men,

they did have incredible skill and they also built up

a very intimate knowledge of the different parts

of the Scottish coastline.

That's what served them so well.

'The pilot is famed throughout the Western Isles.

'Folk have long known the sight of his plane.

' "Our David Barclay," is what they call him.

'He and his radio officer have flown many hundred such missions together.'

There was pilots who were what we'd call seat-of-the-pants guys.

They knew Scotland like the back of their hand.

All the pilots knew that when they received a call,

someone's life was at stake.

And often, they put their own lives at risk to save others.

There was an ethos that the aircraft must always get through

when it was a case of an ambulance call out.

Now, that probably meant that there were many occasions

when pilots flew when common sense should have told them

to wait on the ground until the weather cleared.

On 28th September 1957,

Captain Paddy Calderwood decided to risk an emergency call

to a woman on the Isle of Islay.

Flying with him was Sister Jean Kennedy

and Radio Officer Hugh McGinlay.

The weather was treacherous and, as they descended to land,

disaster struck.

The aircraft, it flew into a hillside,

close to the airport on Islay on its final approach.

And all on board were killed.

It was a wild night but they just had to get to a patient

and that was it, no qualms, you know.

It affected a lot of the nurses and staff, you know,

other staff as well. It really did.

Up to that point, the pilots were allowed to operate

in any weather conditions,

it was entirely down to the captain's discretion.

It was decided after that accident that they would have to observe

the normal weather limits that apply to all commercial aircraft.

Although, it has to be said, that quite often we cheated

on the normal weather limits

if we felt life was involved and that we could,

if we could get in, we would try and get in, regardless of the weather.

Operations, good morning.

'Now, if help were needed in an emergency,

'it could be here very quickly.'

In the 1960s and '70s,

the air ambulance went from strength to strength.

Not just in Scotland but the rest of the UK, too.

Today, an air ambulance takes off every ten minutes.

But it's clear that those saving lives

in the remote Western Isles of Scotland

paved the way for what has become a vital emergency service.

It's an essential service for the islands and a wonderful service.

As I say, we're very, very fortunate living here.

No qualms about living here,

if you're ill or anything like that, really.

You know, nobody needs to worry about that, nowadays.

So we're joined here in the Picture Of Health surgery

by Nurse Lily herself. Lovely to see you, Lily.

-Thank you.

-Welcome.

-Presumably, you went away from the island to train, did you?

-Yes, I did.

-And I was 17.

-Did you go onto the mainland in Scotland?

-In Glasgow.

Yes, went to the Southern General in Glasgow.

When you are a girl, looking at those films there

and that whole ferry chugging across

and the thought of that,

rocking and rolling and you're ill and everything else.

-Just horrifying.

-It must have been horrible.

I hadn't ever to do it. But it must have been horrible.

You didn't think anything of it cos that's the only way we could do it

so you just took it, you know, took it as normal.

And were you involved in any big, sort of, big, dramatic rescues?

Just the weather was so bad sometimes you were bouncing up and down.

When you had patients, it was very difficult.

You know, trying to reassure them.

Some of these patients we had had never left the islands.

-No.

-Never been on a flight in their life before.

-And, you know, it was all, must be very difficult for them.

-Yeah.

-But, as I say...

-You were a good traveller, though?

-I am.

-Did you get sick?

-No, never.

Even on the ferry at home and it can be pretty bad.

No, I'm never sick, no.

But flying small aeroplanes, I don't like flying in small aeroplanes.

-Well, they're quite exciting.

-It's a bit too exciting for me.

-Is it?

No, I quite enjoy it, I do.

-One of the few, I think, that do.

-Yeah.

I enjoyed the ambulance very much cos I felt you were doing

a good job because some of these people would probably,

-you know, have died if they hadn't got hospital.

-Absolutely.

And, as I say, and it must have been such an experience for them

-if they've never left the island.

-Sure.

So, I suppose you could say, Lily,

that you were one of the pioneers in this service, yeah?

Well, there was quite a few before me.

-There were?

-Yes, I wasn't the first.

You know, I was just one of those that was there at the time.

We consider you a pioneer.

It's our dramatic vein, you see. That's what it is.

Anyway, Nurse Lily, and, Derek, thank you so much for being here...

-It's been great.

-..in the Picture Of Health surgery.

-And maybe we'll see you again.

-Yeah. Thanks, Larry.

-Thank you.

Now, to get an expert insight from The Open University, go to...

..and follow the links.

That's it from me today. Goodbye.

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