After three weeks of back pain I eventually went to the doctor.

He tapped my knees with a hammer, asked me about my bowel movements (like you do) and felt my spine.

In a non-committal way he suggested my age might be a contributory factor to my condition and sent me straight off to Huddersfield Royal Infirmary for an X-ray and blood tests.

At the Pathology Department (ground floor) I handed in the request from my GP and was given a number, like you sometimes get in a supermarket.

“Do I sit over here?” I asked, indicating an empty row of chairs.

“Number 63,” said a nurse from a side room.

“By heck. That was quick.”

I never even got to wait.

The nurse was pleasant and we chatted as she stuck a needle in my arm and extracted blood.

I smiled as I recalled Tony Hancock in the Blood Donor. “You want a pint? That’s nearly an armful.”

Fortunately, this nurse didn’t need an armful.

“The doctor thinks my body’s getting on a bit,” I said.

Instead of telling me I looked nothing like my age, she sympathised: “It’s terrible getting old, isn’t it? When you’re young you never consider the aches and pains that lay ahead.”

Which made me feel a lot better.

Then I was off, heading for my next port of call, trying to put a spring in my step in case she was watching despite the aches and pains.

The staff at the X-Ray Department (lower ground floor) were just as friendly.

A male nurse with a great sense of humour made everybody smile.

He shook my hand and said he always read my column in the paper. “We love it,” he said, and the receptionist chuckled, but I think he meant it.

A five minute wait and an attractive young female nurse invited me along to the X-Ray room.

She handed me a hospital gown and said: “Take your clothes off.”

I could have said something witty about being young in the Swinging 60s but remembered that was a long time ago.

I stripped to my underwear in a cubicle and put on the gown and reflected there is nothing quite so bizarre as a gentleman of a certain age in baggy gown and blue socks. Well, it made me smile.

In the X-Ray room I was positioned three or four ways to get snaps of my lower spine. The temptation was to ask for a 10ins by 4ins print and half a dozen postcard size but I kept the quip to myself. Nurses have heard them all before.

A few minutes later I was back in my proper clothes and on my way out.

The efficiency and friendliness of the staff in both departments had been brilliant.

I had been at the hospital less than 45 minutes and didn’t even have to pay a parking fee.

Thank you the NHS. Long may you continue.