CAMPAIGNERS are descending on Jarrow on Saturday to launch the People’s March for the NHS on its 66th birthday.

The campaigners, rallied by a group of Darlington mothers, plan to follow in the footsteps of the famous Jarrow March in 1936 in which residents walked to Westminster to raise awareness of poverty in the north.

The people's march for the NHS will take the exact route of the Jarrow Crusade and will present a petition calling on MPs to safeguard the future of the NHS.

One of the march organisers, Darlington mother Joanna Adams, said: "In just over three months we have managed to recruit thousands to join the people's march for the NHS.

“The public are being misled, the NHS is being sold off by the billions at an alarming rate and we are not going to stand back and let it happen.

“The public know and the public care. You only have to look at the support the people's march for the NHS is getting across the country to know that politicians are getting a bit nervous as the public challenge their record on the NHS.

“Celebrating the NHS 66th Birthday in Jarrow is significant for us - we have an intergenerational responsibility to retain a NHS now and for the future.”

Those wishing to take part in the launch should meet at 11am at the Jarrow Statue, in Jarrow near Morrison's car park.

The actual walk will set off on August 16 and aims to arrive at Westminster on September 6.

Updates will be posted at 999callforthenhs.org.uk