Sunday 16 October marked Healthcare Sunday with hundreds of churches across the UK joined in remembering the thousands of ordinary ‘heroes in healthcare’ of the NHS.

|TOP|The event was backed by more than ten Christian organisations, including CARE, Healthcare Christian Fellowship, Christian Medical Fellowship and Christians in Caring Professions.

“Healthcare disciplines like nursing, medicine, and OT are vocations,” said Steve Fouch, CMF Allied Professions Secretary. “This takes us to the concept of being ‘called’ into what we do.”

Mr Fouch, referring to Acts 20:35, in which Jesus said, “It is more blessed to give than to receive”, said that being a health professional involves special privileges.

“There can be very special rewards in the self-giving of serving the sick. Whether consciously in response to a specific call of God or not, those privileges constitute vocation as opposed to job.”

The initiative is based on St Luke’s day which commemorates Luke, assumed to be the first Christian doctor and author of the book of Luke and Acts.

“The Bible is filled with real life stories of people who made a difference; ordinary men and women who God took in the middle of doing their everyday tasks and made their lives extraordinary,” said Mr Fouch.

He added: “Those who are faithful in the little things every day are indeed heroes. If in today’s world we want to be salt and light, if we want our light to shine in the gathering darkness, we will indeed need to be heroic.

“The good news is that we don’t have to do it on our own. God has promised to be with us every step of the way and to be our enabler in all that we do. That is the message of Healthcare Sunday,” he added.