George Alagiah on the team that saved his father

"A nanosecond - that's how long I had to think about saying yes," says the Sri Lanka-born 52-year-old. "It was a no-brainer. The NHS is the civilising and defining institution of British life." he smiles. "Alongside the BBC, perhaps. But the NHS is the most important of Britain's institutions because it gives people a sense of security about their health, about the basics of life and limb, without which you can't go on and live up to your ambitions and aspirations. I appreciate it as a former foreign correspondent, having come from the poor world to the rich world, and having spent most of my working life in countries where people wish they had something like the NHS."

Alagiah is, perhaps, uniquely placed to assess the NHS as both an insider and an outsider. He first experienced its combination of "cure and care", as he puts it, when returning to his English boarding school, St John's in Southsea, after a teenage visit to his parents in Ghana (as Tamils, the Alagiahs had fled discrimination in Sri Lanka when George was five). "It was the late sixties, I was 13 or 14 and I came back from West Africa and went down with malaria," he says. "It hadn't been identified by my school - they thought it was a bad headache and gave me aspirin. It got to the stage where it could have been very serious when I was hospitalised. I was a kid alone, my parents were thousands of miles away but I remember feeling completely at home, comfortable and cared for."

Later, his parents moved to england to join George and his four sisters, just as George began jetting round the world as a reporter for South magazine and then with the BBC. He and his wife Frances Robothan had two sons, the elder, Adam, born in Zimbabwe and the younger, Matt, in the NHS delivery room at Homerton Hospital. (Alagiah suggests that the contrast between facilities and services at each birth was so extreme as to make comparison pointless.)

But it was the sudden decline in health of his father Donald, a former engineer, that gave Alagiah his most intense, and ongoing, exposure to the work of the NHS. "My father had leukaemia in a low grade form for years, managed with pills, but then in 2003 it became more acute and he needed chemotherapy and blood transfusions," he says. In A Home From Home, he wrote movingly of this episode: "Suddenly this man who had helped to raise us, this husband who had nursed his wife through a long illness to a dignified end, seemed to diminish in stature." Now he adds: "It's a difficult thing when you see yourself as a child and then suddenly you become the parent figure, and this man who used to make all the decisions for you no longer seems able to make any. And inside, you know you haven't got the skills to make those [medical] decisions because they are all very technical." His father's consultant at the Royal Free hospital, Atul Mehta, not only explained the medical procedures clearly and succinctly, but was sensitive to the concerns of an elderly Asian man. "I guess it was the first time I was really aware of the little miracles that get performed by all sorts of people, from the hospital auxiliary - who put my dad in a wheelchair and took him up to the ward, chatting to him and making him feel at ease - to the consultant," says Alagiah. Once his father's condition began to improve, Alagiah appeared in an advert appealing for blood donors: "It just seemed the right thing to do, since my father had benefited from this service, to make a contribution."

Five years on, and now aged 83, Donald Alagiah is still living independently thanks to the same medical professionals. "The continuity of care my father receives rammed home to me that NHS care is sustained and it is longterm," says Alagiah. "The other day my dad phoned up in a complete panic because he had missed an appointment. I phoned up the Royal Free to apologise, saying, 'Look, he is a bit forgetful these days,' and the person at the other end suggested we go through all his appointments. There were five or six up to the end of the year. I thought, isn't this amazing? Here's a man, he's 83, he's very ill. You could imagine a professional saying: 'Look, when it comes to pushing the boat out on expensive treatment, perhaps he's not the candidate.' But no one said that. I think the mapping out of longterm care for an elderly individual tells you more about the service than someone who's had a groundbreaking operation or been treated for a rare disease." The NHS also plays another important, symbolic role for Alagiah. "It is reflective of our society in that it is multicultural," he says. "For 40 years we have had this thing called multiculturalism and no one really knows what it's meant to look like. And some people, including me, think it's gone wrong in certain aspects. But if you go to the NHS, you think: 'Ah, this is it. this is what multiculturalism is about - people coming from lots of different places and contributing together.'

"Among the people looking after my father, Atul Mehta is of east African Asian descent, the ward sister is English, there was a Mauritian, a Ghanaian... the NHS shows what people from different backgrounds can do if they have one guiding spirit and aim - to look after people."

NOMINATE YOUR NHS CHAMPION

The NHS Champions awards are back - to pay tribute to London's dedicated healthcare professionals. They honour the courage, hard work and sacrifice of people who rarely get celebrated within the health service.

Independent think-tank The King's Fund is running the awards in association with the evening Standard and NHS London to mark the 60th anniversary of the NHS. From paramedics to hospital porters, from ward sisters to consultants, these are the healthcare professionals who work untiringly on our behalf.

Many have risked their lives in dangerous situations such as the London bombings or provided comfort to seriously injured accident victims. You can help our judges decide the winners by nominating the staff you believe are the most deserving. Every eligible nominee will receive a certificate from The King's Fund and the evening Standard and shortlisted individuals will be invited to an awards ceremony in early December. The six finalists will all receive a special trophy from a distinguished panel of judges. Panel members include the BBC's George Alagiah and dotcom entrepreneur Martha Lane Fox who describe their lifesaving NHS experiences here.

Do you know an NHS champion? If so, this is your chance to give them the credit they deserve.

To make a nomination log on to www.nhschampions.org.uk

Or print off and send the form via Freepost to: NHS Champions, The King's Fund, Freepost 23 Ke3007, 11-13 Cavendish Square, London W1e 0AX.

The closing date for nominations is 16 October.