Earlier this week I lost my grandmother, and while it’s been a deeply challenging week, especially for my mother and grandfather, I’ve been struck on numerous occasions with the way in which the British state came to our aid- and made the process go as perfectly as we could have asked for. 

The healthcare she received was beyond excellent and was done with a kindness and compassion that still surprises me in its depth. My sister heads off to medical school in about three weeks, and I very much hope that that is the kind of Doctor that she turns into. 

Having worked at a GP surgery for a year, I’m cognisant of the fact that the NHS is on its knees, and I suspect won’t survive for many more years bar reform of the highest order (which our new Prime Minister has neither the will nor the political capital to deliver). But I sincerely hope that we never lose the ethos of the system; that everyone matters, and that health doesn’t come with the tap of a credit card, but instead with a beaming smile. 

We knew from about 10.00 on Wednesday that she wasn’t going to make it through the day, and from that moment to her passing at almost 18.00 the staff in the ICU did not make a single mistake. The rest of my family remains quite religious, and at no point did they falter in aiding us in the religious acts that people wanted to undertake. They provided white string and cotton wool, tracked down a hijab for my sister. I will never forget the image of a female Chaplain with a Scottish accent delivering a booklet of Islamic prayers and asking if the Chaplaincy could help find an Imam. I said to my parents at the time; in how many other countries would we get this? Multiculturalism in all its glory, and human compassion shining through.

The Imam followed within half an hour, as did a Doctor from another ward who delivered a beautiful set of prayers. No questions asked, no judgement offered – the NHS gave my family exactly what they needed in those final moments. I spent much of the day speaking to the nurses on the ward – who I know we will all remember for a long time for their kindness and understanding. If for some reason, Georgia and Fred ever read this, my sincerest thanks. 

And the beauty of the state didn’t stop there, for those of you unfamiliar with Islamic funerals – the body has to be buried within 24 hours, and so a Doctor came in early on Thursday morning to sign the death certificate, they emailed it over straight away to the Registry Office, who created a slot in the morning to see us straight away. The cemetery stayed open slightly late to allow us to bury on Thursday. 

This is liberalism in action – the understanding that I may not agree with your beliefs or your practices, but that you should be free to engage in them; and that tolerance, compassion and understanding come first. 

It’s been a hard month or so to be an ethnic minority in this country, many of the people I know have felt their patriotism subside. But the actions of rioters and internet warriors don’t represent the fabric of this nation. We remain one of, if not the best place to be an ethnic minority in the world. I can think of nowhere else I would rather be than right here, where I am equal under the law and loved equally in the eyes of my fellow citizens. 

Our country is struggling, yes. There’s work to do, yes. But we are a good place, filled with good people. I wish it wasn’t death that had to reinforce that message, but such is the way the world works. So let us continue to work to tell our national story a little better – to accept our shortcomings, but to be proud of what we are. Watching an old man I love dearly lose his wife of half a century was the hardest part of this week, but being proud of my country was the best. 

I hope she’ll be remembered for the vast amounts of joy and care she brought to the world – she was a school teacher with a passion for the education of girls. But to me she was someone who helped raise me, who equipped my mother with the tools to become a doctor and to raise her children on the other side of the world. Her pride and joy were her five daughters, educated at a time and place when that was not the norm, each exceedingly successful in their own right, and a generation of grandchildren who are privileged to grace the halls of the best educational institutions on both sides of the Atlantic. All these achievements can be directly traced back to her work and her beliefs. For all of that, those of us left behind can only say thank you.

To be British is not to be Muslim, Christian, white, brown, rich, poor, gay or straight or any other myriad of characteristics. It’s a simple set of values, of a culture of equality born out of a thousand years of progression, and I sincerely hope that this great nation still stands tall in another thousand years. 

* Zagham Farhan is President of the Oxford University Liberal Democrats.