NHS 75th anniversary: How did people celebrate?

The National Health Service (NHS) turned 75 on 5 July 2023, and people up and down the UK took part in events to celebrate it.

Since 1948, the NHS has been treating patients and making huge breakthroughs in medicine, such as delivering the the world's first liver, heart, and lung transplant in 1987.

It's recently had some issues, however. Lots of NHS staff have gone on strike in recent months, as they believe they are not paid enough and that their services have been cut so much they can't do their jobs properly.

It's also under a lot of pressure at the moment, with waiting times at record levels and people still waiting to be seen after the Covid-19 pandemic caused huge backlogs of patients.

The Prime Minister Rishi Sunak recently said he would invest in training up 300,000 people in England over the next 15 years to help tackle this.

Let's take a look at how people have celebrated the NHS.

The King and Queen cut the NHS' birthday cake

You can't have a birthday without cake!

King Charles and Queen Camilla cut the health service's blue and white birthday cake at the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh, as part of loads of events they're taking part in in Scotland for Royal Week.

Prince and Princess of Wales visited the first ever NHS baby

Aneira Thomas told Prince William she had been born on the same day as the NHS

The morning the NHS Act came into effect, which was the law that created the health service, Aneira Thomas was born.

She became the first ever baby born into the NHS, and will also be celebrating her 75th birthday on the same day.

To mark the two historic birthdays, Prince William and Princess Kate went to meet Aneira at a tea party at St Thomas' Hospital in London.

And of course, there was cake there, too!

Landmarks around the UK will be turning blue

More than 70 iconic UK landmarks such as the Blackpool Tower, the Shard in London, Spinnaker Tower in Portsmouth and many more turned bright blue in honour of the NHS.

The London Eye in England's capital got lit up as part of the celebrations

So was the Department for Health building - this is the part of government that oversees the NHS

A knitting group have made a woolly nice birthday decoration

A group of knitters in West Yorkshire not only knitted this fantastic post-box topper, but also 75 hats for babies born at their local hospital.

Kathleen's group knitted all the hats and the postbox topper to say happy birthday to the NHS

Kathleen Jackson, 76, said her Knit and Natter group in Kippax, near Leeds, regularly knits woolly clothes and accessories for babies at the local hospital, and wanted to honour the "amazing" NHS on its anniversary.

A special service was held in Westminster Abbey

A service of thanks was held at Westminster Abbey in London and was attended by lots of very important people.

Both the Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and the leader of the Labour Party Keir Starmer gave speeches about how much good the NHS has done for the UK over the years.

Have you been celebrating the NHS at school? What does the NHS mean to you? Let us know in the comments.