'We were the first twins born on the NHS - we owe the health service everything'
As a devoted brother and sister, Rita Doran and her brother Ronnie Evans share many things – including a very special place in the history of the NHS.
With the health service less than an hour old, the pair became the first twins to be born into a new world of free healthcare. And as they – and the service – look forward to celebrating their 75th birthday, both siblings admit they are incredibly proud of their unique claim to fame.
“We always take the opportunity to tell people when we were born,” says Rita, who lives just a few hundred yards away from her brother in Fleetwood on the Lancashire coast.
“If I’m at a hospital appointment and they ask my date of birth I say, ‘Do you know what’s special about that date?’ People are always interested.”
Rita and Ronnie's birth certificate (Reach Commissioned i)Ronnie arrived in the world at 12.45am on 5 July 1948, with Rita following at 1.25am. Their older brother Keith was two at the time.
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“Our mum Eileen didn’t know she was having twins until she was six months gone – in those days there was no such thing as scans,” says Rita. “When she found out, it was pandemonium getting a double pram and all the supplies together.”
The prospect of a multiple birth would also have been a financial worry. Before the NHS was established, a week’s stay in hospital could cost up to £10. Single-income families were common and the average working man’s wage at the time was around £7 a week, making hospital facilities unaffordable for many.
Little wonder that pregnant women regularly chose to have their babies at home, helped by older relatives or a midwife, who would charge one shilling and sixpence for her services.
Rita and Ronnie’s dad Ronald was a fishing boat skipper and at the time of their birth was on a three-week sailing trip to Iceland.
“So you can see how much of his wage having twins would have taken. Thank goodness Mum had us when she did – the very day it all became free,” says Ronnie. “Now, you don’t think twice about going to the doctor, but then it could be an expensive thing for ordinary people.”
But the twins’ remarkable birth marked only the start of their lifelong relationship with the NHS. As tots, both managed to get into a cupboard and drink a bottle of Zebo – a fluid used to clean oven ranges and stoves – and were rushed to the GP by their anxious mum. “He told her not to worry – we would just poo black for a while!” says Rita, laughing.
Far more seriously, when Ronnie was 18 months old he contracted polio. Initially left partially paralysed, the now-retired building trade worker and haulage driver underwent years of treatment and physiotherapy to combat the effects.
“Without the NHS we could never have afforded that and I suppose I would have been left just as I was. I thank my lucky stars,” he says.
Both remember the home remedies used by their mum and grandmother, who were no doubt still adjusting to not having to pay for healthcare.
Rita and Ronnie at the age of 16 (Reach Commissioned i)“You had a warm poultice made of clay on your ear for earache and a vinegar rag to take a headache away. It used to smell awful,” recalls Rita, who worked both in the shoe trade and later at a crisp factory.
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It’s clear the pair, like many twins, share a close bond. “Ron will say, ‘I dreamed of Dad last night’ and I will have too,” says Rita.
“And some years ago, Ron was in a serious road accident and on my way to see him my leg started to hurt very badly. It was so painful and I couldn’t understand why until I got to the hospital and there was Ron with a shattered leg.”
As the years have passed, the twins have continued to rely on and be grateful for the NHS, with Ronnie suffering heart issues and Rita fibromyalgia. The service has also helped deliver between them six children, 14 grandchildren and for Rita four great-grandchildren. They will celebrate their own 75th milestone surrounded by family and perhaps with a barbecue.
“We’re staunch advocates of the NHS,” says Rita firmly. “That’s because we owe it everything.”
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