Icing on the cake for NHS

By EMMA MORTON Health Editor CRUMBS! Health Secretary Alan Johnson celebrates the NHS’s 60th birthday yesterday by keeping a promise to a nurse — to bake her a cake. Mr Johnson made the vow at a conference earlier this year when BJ Waltho, 53, demanded to know what he would give nurses on the diamond anniversary. He replied: “I’ll bake you a cake.” True to his word he gave her an orange-flavoured nut cake after a service at Westminster Abbey to pay tribute to the National Health Service. Delighted BJ — a nursing manager who has served the NHS for 33 years and been honoured for her work at the Royal Bournemouth Hospital — took it with her as she headed for her night shift. Prince Charles joined hundreds of former and serving NHS staff at the abbey. They heard Gordon Brown describe free health care as the “noblest manifestation... [read full story]