Andrea Hallam fears for the future of her family.
The mother-of-three is already holding down three jobs and still life is a struggle.
She took her very personal message to the picket line at Queen’s Medical Centre in Nottingham.
Andrea is a phlebotomist, working for GP practises, a health care assistant and takes out-of-hours calls for emergency medical services, yet still her annual earnings only come to £17,000.
With her 19-year-old daughter at university and sons aged 17 and 15, the bills are just getting higher.
“I’m really feeling it now,” Andrea said, “more than ever. Everything is going up. I’m on really hard times now, every penny matters and it is only going to get worse.
“The other workers at my surgery have been very supportive of my action today. I am here now because it is affecting my life. I’m working full time and getting less money.”
Everyone that walked past Andrea as they went into the hospital took a leaflet from her, many giving a smile and saying they would read about her message.
“I don’t agree with what the government want to do,” Andrea said: “If we have to work until we are 68, I don’t know if I will be able to do all my jobs then.”
Now aged 46, she fears that her long term prospects are bleak. “I just don’t know about the future. I worry for my children. My daughter is at uni and my son is at college but he cannot get a part time job – there is nothing out there for them. It is a frightening future, I just don’t know what will happen.”
Andrea gets support from her children’s father and her union worker fiancé but money is still tight.
She is angry over the pension proposals. “Before the government got in, they said they would not touch public sector workers but that is exactly what they have done and I cannot see how it will get better. It is totally wrong what they are going to do.”
Joining her on the picket line was a 62-year-old auxiliary nurse, angry that the government had gone back on promises. The protester, who did not wish to be named, described how she cried as she and a colleague walked out of their night shift to join the strike.
She said: “I made sure there was cover for the patients and then left. I was crying at having to do it but I felt so strongly. The government had promised people who don’t get good wages a good pension. It’s just dreadful.”