Celebrations of the NHS's seventieth birthday are beginning in Stroud with the opening of an exhibition in Lansdown Hall last night.

Photography, birthday cards, and specially-commissioned art were amongst the works on display at the first night of the NHS 70 exhibition, which runs until the June 30 from 11am to 5pm each day.

The exhibition is organised Stroud Against the Cuts, a group campaigning against the privatisation of the NHS and cuts to its cash.

How the NHS is funded - in the past, now, and how it could be in the future - was the theme of the photography, with a particular focus on the role of Private Finance Initiatives, or PFIs.

The opening night, held on Monday, June 25 from 6pm to 8pm, also featured a talk by Helen Mercer from The People vs PFI, as well as poetry reading from Radical Stroud and music from activists who have campaigned to protect Stroud's local NHS services.