Hello,

I’m on strike today.

I really wish I wasn’t - I’d much rather be doing my job of looking after people like you. It’s a very tough time for me to be missing out on a day’s pay. But I felt like I didn’t have any other choice. Thousands of my colleagues feel the same.

For years, our NHS has been underpaid and undervalued by the Government. But this year’s cost of living crisis has been the tipping point. I can’t stand by any longer as my colleagues rely on foodbanks and face homelessness because of huge real term pay cuts. In fact the average nurse in the UK has lost 20% of their income the last 10 years.

Thank you for signing my petition to show your support for our NHS. We are sending a strong message to the Government: stop the real-term cuts to our NHS. I am amazed that more than 150,000 of you have already added their names.

Today is the first-ever national strike of NHS nurses. That tells you something. I can’t stress enough how we’ve wanted to avoid this. But the Government hasn’t taken our pleas for a reasonable pay rise seriously. We’ve been left with no other choice.

Every Thursday during the Covid-19 crisis we were heartened by millions of people - politicians included - who stood on their doorsteps and clapped for us. Your clapping kept us going during the grueling lockdowns.

But claps don’t pay the bills.

The NHS relies on the goodwill of its staff - nurses, doctors, physios, radiographers, porters and everybody else - to work a lot more than we’re paid for. And of course we’ve always done it: we love the NHS and our patients.

So please, show your support for us, and for our NHS, today. I’ll be out in the freezing cold today because I love our NHS so much. It’s why I’ve dedicated my life to being a nurse.

In solidarity,

Matt Tovey, NHS nurse