At picket lines in Newcastle and Gateshead, members of the public helped keep striking nurses warm and fed on an freezing day - and spoke of their gratitude for the NHS staff who saved their lives or those of their loved ones.
Royal College of Nursing (RCN) members went out on strike at three of the North East's NHS trusts over a pay dispute. The first time in 106 years that the RCN has recommended strike action, the dispute has seen the college call for a pay rise of inflation plus 5%. The offer on the table is just £1,400 and the RCN said this compounds more than a decade of "pay erosion".
Though some threw abuse at striking workers, the majority of public sentiment on the picket lines on Thursday was supportive - one man even pushed his drip stand down from a Freeman Hospital ward to pay tribute to nurses he sees as "heroes". Carl Brannan, 50, had a cancerous tumour removed in September and has spent the months since then recovering in hospital.
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