Thoughts on driving through the Cumbrian Fells

I have lived with my family in West Cumbria for twelve years now and the beauty of this area still has the power to take my breath away.

We've had some very cold weather and some foul weather over the past few days: and since earlier this week the fells and mountains like Scafell Pike have been snow-capped.

I had a long journey back home this lunchtime after a meeting (at which the success regime proposals for our local hospitals and the need to boost recruitment was on the agenda) and after dropping a colleague who had attended it back home.

It had been a grey and wet morning but the sky suddenly cleared as I was driving along a very high stretch of road.

I was suddenly presented with an amazing vista of rolling fields, hills and mountains, the furthest of which were more than twenty miles away, gleaming white in the sun. There are no words to describe how beautiful it was, but it reminded me that Cumbria is one of the most lovely places in the world.

When we are trying to recruit people to staff our hospitals we ought to do more to emphasise how fantastically lovely this are is and some of the other very real health and quality of life advantages of living here.