2. Julie Bailey

Julie Bailey set up the Cure the NHS group after the death of her mother Bella at Stafford hospital in 2007. She campaigned and exposed the failings at Stafford Hospital on behalf of other relatives of patients who had died at the hospital. Her ‘whistleblowing’ led to a public inquiry by Robert Francis QC, which uncovered cases of neglect and abuse.

The Francis Inquiry, which ran for a year in 2010-11, looked at why a higher than expected number of deaths at Stafford Hospital between 2005 and 2008 was not picked up earlier.

The group successfully campaigned for a full public inquiry which concluded in 2013. Since then new rules, to make hospitals in England publish monthly details of whether they have enough nurses on their wards and making a criminal offence of wilful neglect to hold staff to account, have been announced.

Julie Bailey has also faced online abuse and last year said she had been forced to sell her cafe and move away from Stafford owing to safety fears.

This year she was made a CBE by the Queen for "services to the care of older people".