NHS at 75: Stenhousemuir woman Annette Hall celebrates her birthday with health service

Annette Hall from Stenhousemuir has regularly shared her landmark birthdays with events to mark the start of the NHS.

This year as it turns 75 unfortunately she is not at home but is currently in Cunninghame House in Grangemouth for rehabilitation. However, that didn’t stop the party with family joining her for a party thrown by staff and carers – and of course, a very special 75th birthday cake delivered by NHS Forth Valley.

Annette McMillan was born in Stenhousemuir on July 5, 1948, the day the idea for a national, free health service came to fruition. She attended Larbert Village then Larbert High Schools before leaving at 15 to work for a year in Young’s Store in Falkirk. There was then nine years spent at Dunn and Wilson bookbinders where she was a blocker putting titles on spines of books. A short spell at Havelock in Middlefield followed then on to John Colliers in Denny.

She met her future husband Robin Hall at a dance at the Leapark in 1971 and they married two years later. He was a trained hairdresser at Greens in Falkirk then went to BA British Aluminium as a packer until it closed which saw him returning to hairdressing part-time. Sadly he died in 2002 aged 61.

The couple had two daughters, Kelley Winsborough, 47, and Francine Hall, 45, and two grandchildren, Robin Hall, ten, and Caitlyn Hall, eight. She was also joined at her celebration by her sisters, Christine Risk, 73, of Larbert, and Vikki Mowbray, 78, of Stenhousemuir.

Talking of the NHS, Annette said: “They are brilliant and very deserving of 75th birthday celebrations. The staff and carers at Cunningham House are also wonderful.”

She wasn’t the only one enjoying cake today as Serco distributed special 75th anniversary cupcakes to patients in local hospitals and afternoon tea boxes were also handed out.

Earlier this week First Minister Humza Yousaf, visited Forth Valley Royal Hospital to thank local staff and speak to a number of patients who had recently undergone surgery, while Health Secretary Michael Matheson sent a message thanking all NHS staff for their efforts.