Prime Minister Andy Burnham and local politician John Vickers talk about losing loved ones and care reform

There are some people we wish could have stayed with us a little longer.

People we wish could have shared in the moments that mattered, and witnessed the things that have changed since they left us.

For both John Vickers and I, that feeling is bound up with the care our loved ones needed and received.

I lost my dad, Roy, after his health deteriorated with dementia. I (John) lost my wife, Sue, to cancer, suddenly and far too soon.

Our experiences were different, but we share an understanding of what it means to receive good care, and of how much it matters that they are surrounded by kindness.

In the days after I became Prime Minister, my dad’s carers told me a story. They shared that at the moment I walked up to 10 Downing Street, they gathered around him, brought his chair in front of the screen and encouraged him to look. For a moment they thought he understood that his son was walking up to 10 Downing Street to become Prime Minister.

I do find it sad that my dad’s illness and his death meant he hasn’t been able to see what has happened in the months since I became your MP.

But this small act of kindness meant an enormous amount to me and his family.

It showed that care is about more than meeting someone’s physical needs – it is about recognising the person behind the illness for as long as they are there.

I (John) lost Sue to cancer in 2023, and for the last few weeks of her life, she was a patient in Wigan and Leigh Hospice.

That’s why this hospice will always be a very special place to me. Sue had a garden room there, where she could watch the birds outside through her window. She was cared for with extraordinary compassion and kindness.

It was a place where they were able to make precious final memories together, at a time when every moment mattered.

Neither of us are sharing our stories for sympathy. These are losses we live with each day, and we carry them whether we get sympathy or not.

We are sharing them in part because they underpin what drives us as people, as members of our community, and as those in politics seeking to make a difference.

We cannot give our loved ones time back. But we can do something with what they have taught us.

Wigan and Leigh Hospice, and so many of the care homes in our borough and throughout our country do great work. That’s why we’ve both donated money and continue to advocate for the hospice wherever we go.

Both of us will always be grateful for the quality of care that our loved ones receive. But the truth is our care system cannot currently provide high levels of care for all, and is being held together at the seams by the incredible carers who look after our loved ones in their most challenging moments.

The current system means that people all throughout our towns and in our country get old fearing that they will lose all they’ve worked for. I could never be content with keeping that as is. That’s why I want to build a National Care Service where everyone contributes and everyone benefits.

This is what I am proposing: a new settlement for older people. That means a state pension that rises every year, no personal care charges and a high-quality National Care Service to give peace of mind in later life.

For both of us, our goal is to fix the system so that people can receive the dignity and security they need.

Because both of us know what the consequences are if we don’t.

If we don’t fix our broken social care system, it will eventually break the NHS too.

In our hospitals that serve our towns as around the country, there are huge costs that pile up every day thanks to the pressures on A&Es and an inability to discharge patients home because of a lack of adequate social care.

This issue is structural as it is political. We’ve both seen the difference that good care can make.

For Wigan and Leigh Hospice, for all the social care providers throughout our borough, and for patients, we’ll both keep fighting for a system that works for everyone.

John Vickers is standing for Labour in the forthcoming Hindley Green by-election on November 12. The other candidates are: David Burley (Lib-Dem); Bonnie Clarke (Reform); Daniel Jackson (Con); Mark Prescott (Ind), Rebecca Shepherd (Restore) and Nat Smith (Green).