North Yorkshire burns victim pays tribute to "incredible NHS staff"

A North Yorkshire woman who suffered catastrophic burns says the care she has had over the last nine years of recovery has been "exceptional".

Lucy Morgan from Boroughbridge was injured after someone threw flammable liquid onto a garden fire she was standing next to: "25% of my body was burnt, they initially had to do a lot of wound cleaning, they had to do a lot of infection control, round the clock wound care, all hours of the night the nurses were working. When you are injured like that it can put you into quite a deep hole, where you think, this healing is taking forever, we are never going to get through this, this is awful, I can't cope with this, but without their happy smiling faces and around the clock care, it would have been 10 times worse."

Lucy has been having treatment for nine years and says we can't take the health service for granted: "If I was somewhere that didn't have the national health service with the amount of injuries that I had, I would have either ended up with horrendous medical bills, or I'd having to be relying on insurance rather than just getting better."

Ahead of the 75th anniversary of the NHS this week, Lucy has been paying tribute to the staff who've looked after her on the burns unit during that first month: "I actually look back on it with strangely enough fond memories, because it was like having a second family for four weeks."

Meanwhile it's been confirmed York hospital will be lit up blue on Wednesday to mark the anniversary.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          Chief Executive Simon Morritt says:  “Lighting up our hospital gives us the perfect opportunity to celebrate the achievements of one of the nation’s most loved institutions, to appreciate the vital role the service plays in our lives, and to thank staff and volunteers working within our hospitals and out in the community for their hard work, compassion and dedication to our patients.”

York Hospital will light up blue for a full week joining NHS organisations up and down the country who are taking time out to say a big happy birthday.

Hear all the latest news from across the UK on the hour, every hour, on Greatest Hits Radio on DAB, smartspeaker, at greatesthitsradio.co.uk, and on the Rayo app.