A NORTHUMBERLAND MP has expressed his gratitude to the “outstanding” National Health Service that has saved his life twice.

Hexham’s Guy Opperman yesterday told the Commons how the health service had helped after a bad fall from a horse, and then again saved him this summer after he was diagnosed with a brain tumour.

He said: “Several years ago I was saved from death when I suffered a bad fall as a jockey at Stratford races in an amateur riders’ race.

“I was leading when my horse knuckled on landing over the second last and crushed me – breaking nine bones on my left side, causing internal bleeding and rupturing my spleen.”

And in April this year the Conservative MP again needed the NHS to save his life after he became ill in the House of Commons.

He was rushed to hospital in London with what was diagnosed as a benign brain tumour.

The MP has now resumed his political duties full time after being operated on twice in May and after a period of convalescence and a spell of part-time work in June and July.

Referring to his “scary” recent ordeal, Mr Opperman said: “Clearly I had a type of brain tumour that was the most easy to deal with in that the tumour was inside my skull but pressing down onto the brain, not in the brain.