On Wednesday the government voted against feeding hungry children in the holidays. On Thursday I started a course of hospital treatment for which, like every other UK citizen, I won't pay a penny. The whole country collectively pays for my treatment ...

I have not been means tested; or told that it's my fault; or given punitive 'incentives' to stay well, with penalties for not fulfilling them. I have not been expected to rely on charity. In short, I have not been judged for my misfortune ...

Instead I am being treated with dignity, compassion and respect by skilled professionals. As I lay under the high-tech scanners today, I thought about the anomaly that we accept the collective principle for healthcare but reject it when it comes to ensuring that children are fed.

This means that children who are hospitalised as a result of malnutrition will, like me, receive gold-standard care. But then they will be returned to homes with no food. It is myopic; it is inefficient (treating kids is expensive; feeding them is not); worse, it is cruel.

Nye Bevan wrote: 'No society can legitimately call itself civilised if a sick person is denied medical aid because of lack of means.' It is his great achievement that we have an overwhelming national consensus on that. It is time we applied the same consensus to feeding children.

I'm so grateful for my NHS treatment – but actually it is my right, as a citizen of this country. It should be every child's right to access good food. Let's fight to get that right enshrined in law, so the disgrace of Wednesday's vote can never happen again. #ENDCHILDFOODPOVERTY