The recent NHS 70th anniversary celebrations, focused on the home town of its founder, Aneurin Bevan, brought back many proud and happy memories for the Childs family.

A number of pressed-steel figures are to be found dotted around various parts of Tredegar — silhouettes of local people whose work and achievements have made a lasting impact both locally as well as nationally.

Norah Childs

Bevan himself can be seen, but also a figure of a certain Norah Childs, who can be found casually leaning on a fence in the local Bedwellty Park.

Norah, who died in 2011, was the last secretary of Tredegar's pioneering Medical Aid Society — the forerunner and blueprint Bevan used to 'Tredegar-ise' the nation with the creation of the National Health Service in 1948. She also happened to be the aunty of Bob and Nicholas Childs

She was the secretary of the Medical Aid Society all her working life and believed in the NHS heart and soul — gentle and caring, but not a woman to be trifled with as we say in the valleys!Bob Childs

Remarkable woman

Bob told 4BR: "Norah was a remarkable woman — and a proper Welsh aunty, not just to us all in the family. She was the secretary of the Medical Aid Society all her working life and believed in the NHS heart and soul — gentle and caring, but not a woman to be trifled with as we say in the valleys!

The family is very proud that she has been honoured by the town of Tredegar, especially as she can be seen just a few yards away from the bandstand in Bedwellty Park where she used to enjoy listening to the local band which her husband Reg was Chairman of.

Bob added: "I know she would have been thrilled to have heard 'Legacy' commissioned by Tredegar Band to commemorate the 70th anniversary — and we as a family are very proud of her contribution to the inspiration behind the NHS."