COLCHESTER’S hospitals have undergone dramatic changes in the past 60 years.

However, there has been one constant through all of it – the Colchester League of Hospital and Community Friends.

The charity was founded in 1954, just six years after the NHS was set up, and celebrates its diamond anniversary this year.

It started life as a single shop at Essex County Hospital, in Lexden Road, Colchester.

Since then it has grown dramatically and now has seven shops split between Colchester General Hospital, Essex County and the primary care centre.

Read the full story in Monday's Gazette.