Me

The year was 1966, my favourite tv show was Dr Who (Patrick Troughton), my favourite radio shows were The Goons and Jimmy Clitheroe and my favourite band was The Move (now ELO). I remember being in bed suffering with hot/cold sweats, pain all over my body and a high temperature. Crying out to my Mum, not knowing what was wrong and being rushed to Greenbank Hospital in Plymouth. I'm 5 years old suffering with a fever now and delirious A surgeon tells my parents there is nothing he can do, but with the help of a five pound note he would try his best. Crying out to my Mum, not knowing what was wrong and being rushed to Greenbank Hospital in Plymouth. I'm 5 years old suffering with a fever now and delirious A surgeon tells my parents there is nothing he can do, but with the help of a five pound note he would try his best.

I woke up in the Intensive Care Unit at Freedom Fields Hospital with five tubes and drains coming from my stomach and going to a large, noisy pump by my bed where I would stay for the next 12 months. Eventually I was moved to the children's ward (Albertha ward) in Greenbank Hospital where I regained my strength and began to walk again. The day came when the pump could be removed and I was scared out of my mind not knowing what was going to be done to remove it. I stayed on that ward for another two years, having to have a supplement teacher for school lessons, and getting to know the patients really well along the way. Eventually I left the Hospital and began a near normal life along with being bullied at main school and further surgery happening.

Then in 1978 came the heart attack, I was a teenager on the High Dependence Unit connected to a Dialysis machine that was to be part of my life for the next 8 years. This was hard for me to take and, I became very depressed and suicidal during those eight years, until I got the telephone call (my luck had changed for the better, a kidney was available for me).

I eventually got a Nursing post at the Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital which was in the Accident & Emergency department the job was stressful, chaotic and hard, but I am the kind of person who likes to be busy and I enjoyed the job. One morning I woke up and my breakdown began to hit me hard.

I called in sick, packed a bag and walked away to begin a new life on the streets. At first I was unsure of what to expect, but one day met Andy who had been on the streets for 14 years and he showed me the ropes. We were constantly moving around the town, staying away from police and security guards. Soon we found a skip behind a supermarket that we used to sleep behind, and two nights a week we would go to the local Night shelter to have a warm bed and a cooked meal for £1.00.

Some weekends we would travel to Retreats where we could stay the whole weekend providing we helped on the land, picking vegetables, or around the building preparing the meals or repairing things. A lot of good friends passed away during my 9 months on the streets, mostly from overdoses or hyperthermia. It was tough going, but I felt safe and in a strange way at home. During the day we normally found places to chill, nights were tough and a night shelter was only available every Friday night, mostly it was first come/first served for a bed and meal with anyone turning up after 9pm not getting in.

Eventually the local Council recognised me as a vulnerable adult and gave me emergency housing in a nearby village.

That kidney lasted for 32 years, but in 2015 it rejected and I was told that having another transplant would be very dangerous. So now I am back on Dialysis and taking each day as it comes.