As the National Health Service celebrates its 60th birthday on Saturday, Mrs Irene Siddiqui will also be blowing out 60 candles on her birthday cake.

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Her remarkable story started when Mrs Siddiqui was a 20-year-old growing up on the island of Trinidad and dreaming to be a nurse. Those dreams came true when she moved to England and secured a job at Burnley General Hospital.

In the years that followed, Mrs Siddiqui never had a day off sick and even met her future husband, Mr Sid Siddiqui, through her work. He was organising a Mayor's ball in Accrington and had invited foreign nurses to the event.

The dedicated nurse trained at Burnley and also worked in the town's former Reedley and Marsden hospitals before working at Blackburn and lastly at Palace House Nursing Home, Burnley.

Mrs Siddiqui, of Valley Gardens, Hapton, said: "I am very proud to have worked for the NHS. I think it is a wonderful organisation and it has certainly been a big part of my life. I always wanted to be a nurse when I was growing up in Trinidad and that's why I came to England. People criticise the NHS but I think it is the best."

Mr Siddiqui, who came to this country from India and served in the RAF, said his wife was a very caring person. The couple have two sons and two grand-daughters.

The NHS was "born" on July 5th, 1948, at the Park Hospital (now Trafford General Hospital) in Manchester. Aneurin Bevan, the new appointed Health Minister, had been given the task of introducing the National Health Service. He proposed that any resident in the country would have access to any kind of treatment they needed without having to face the embarrassment of being unable to pay for it.