BOLTON Hospital bosses are looking for people who worked in the NHS 50 years ago to put themselves in line for a top prize. As part of the Hospitals Trust celebrations to mark 50 years of the NHS, a competition is being launched this week to find people who worked in the town's hospitals in 1948. The winner of the prize draw will win a pair of tickets to the Halle Orchestra's prestigious NHS 50th anniversary charity concert which is being held on July 11 at the Victoria Hall, Bolton.

In the run up to the draw, some of the entrants will feature in the Bolton Evening News and their memories of the town's hospitals of 50 years ago will be highlighted.

Mrs Beverley Andrews, Director of Operations with Bolton Hospitals NHS Trust which is hosting the concert, believes there are many former members of staff who have their own particular memory of working in the NHS.

She said: "The Trust is holding a number of commemorative events for staff and the public in this anniversary year, and we thought it was important not to forget those who were working right at the beginning of the NHS.

"We're sure they will have many interesting memories."

In the 1940s there were several hospitals in Bolton including Wilkinson, Peel, Fall Birch, Hulton, Edmund Potter and a number of maternity and convalescence homes, as well as the Bolton Royal Infirmary and what is now the Royal Bolton Hospital.

Nursing, medical and general staff who worked in the hospitals from that time are all eligible to enter the competition and the winner's name will be drawn at random on Friday, June 26.

Entrants should complete the form on this page and send it to NHS Competition, Promotions Department, Bolton Evening News, Newspaper House, Churchgate, Bolton BL1 1DE

Tickets for the concert are selling well at £10 for adults and £5 for accompanied children.

The event will take the form of a traditional "Last Night of the Proms" in aid of the Royal Bolton Hospital's Children's Wards Appeal and Bolton Hospice and is being supported by the Manchester and Salford Hospital Saturday Fund.

Tickets are available from either Jenny Walsh at the Royal Bolton Hospital on Bolton 390854, Bolton Hospice Campaign Office on Bolton 520040, Albert Hall box office on Bolton 364333 and Picturesque on Bolton 397707.

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