Stephen Hawking: a scientist who never forgot the value of the NHS | Jonathan Freedland

Hawking's fascination with the cosmos never stopped him speaking out on an everyday issue of vital importance

In one of his last articles for the Guardian, Stephen Hawking confessed that, thanks to the celebrity he had gained - not many theoretical physicists could boast cameo roles in Star Trek and the Simpsons - and "the isolation imposed by my illness, I feel as though my ivory tower is getting taller".

And yet the last scholar who could be accused of living in an ivory tower, aloof from the problems of the world, was Stephen Hawking. Though he gazed at the stars, he never lost sight of the troubles of the Earth, including those of his own country.

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