ARTISTS have been paying tribute to the health service with love letters to the NHS and the people who work for it.

The North Yorkshire Calligraphers group have created an exhibition of work on display in the spirituality centre at the University Hospital of North Tees, in Stockton.

The work, called "a love letter to our NHS", is aimed at showing gratitude to the health service for all of its work – particularly during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Robert Cooper, who is part of the chaplaincy team at North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trust and is also a member of the calligraphy group, said: “This fantastic work is the creation of local calligraphers – it’s their way of expressing admiration for everything that NHS staff have been doing over the last few months.

“We want as many staff to be able to visit this display to see the gratitude we have for everything they do.”

In a message alongside the display, the group says: “A Love Letter to our NHS” is just one group of people using something they enjoy (calligraphy) as a vehicle to express what they have always felt about the NHS, but have felt with greater intensity than ever before during the past six months.

“It is just our way of saying ‘Thank You’, not simply that we have the healthcare system we do, but that there are thousands upon thousands of people who make that system function for everyone’s benefit day-by-day, sometimes at great cost to themselves.

"We love the NHS and we love the people who make it real – and we want you to know how much you mean to us.”