UNIONS hailed a strike by up to two million public sector workers as historic on December 1, 2011, as they angrily rejected claims by the Prime Minister that the biggest walkout in a generation had been a "damp squib".

David Cameron told the Commons that the "irresponsible and damaging" industrial action had been far from universally supported as he defended the Government's controversial pension reforms.

Officials from 30 unions involved in the strike reported huge support, with up to 90 per cent of some organisations taking action, often for the first time in their lives.

The strike closed more than three-quarters of schools in England, as well as courts, museums, libraries and jobcentres, disrupted transport, hospitals and Government departments, led to about 15 per cent of driving tests being cancelled, and was described by unions as the biggest since the 1979 Winter of Discontent.

A great-grandfather who feared a child could be killed if a council made its school crossing patrols redundant started a campaign to stop the cuts in December 2011.

In less than a week, lollipop man Albert Carter collected 600 signatures protesting against the Darlington Borough Council review of the service, which could see volunteers replacing the 36 school crossing patrols, saving the council £300,000.

The proposal emerged after the authority sent letters to its lollipop men and women advising the move to a volunteer service was being considered.

Mr Carter hoped to collect at least 800 names before he takes the petition to the council.

A mother told how her son beat all the odds to undergo open heart surgery at only 22 hours old in December 2011.

The 12-hour operation at the Freeman Hospital, Newcastle, meant that Toby Dring, who was born with a rare heart condition, became one of the youngest babies in the world to go through the procedure.

Mother Sophie said: "He is my little fighter. It's great if he is one of the world's youngest, but to me, records do not matter too much. What is more important is that he is here and he is alive."

Toby had hypoplastic left heart syndrome, which affects one in 5,000 babies and occurs when the left side of the heart fails to form properly.

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