I sustained a severe brain injury in August 1994. It was in Cyprus as I was there due to a work placement fron Uni, working in the 5 Star Grecian Park Hotel, supposedly for a year.

I’ve been told that we went out on August 18th just like every other night. We had been working very hard all week (12 hours). We went to a couple of different pubs in Ayia Napa. We were all tired though so decided to come home and we all got on our mopeds.Mine was the slowest bike so everyone else was well in front. There was no problem with this because whoever got the slow bike got home last.

I’d like to say we were going about 100 mph on a Harley Davidson when a big truck carrying girders cast iron ones at that, hit me from behind throwing me 20 ft across the road into a big bolder and smashing my head.

But no, We were going about 15 mph and I probably fell asleep and slumped of the bike. I went about half a yard.

I like to think that I’m a very hard working and thoughtful person. I needed to work a lot and I needed to go out for a drink (not too much that night.) Anyway I needed to do these and I was struggling to fit in time to sleep so I thought I’d try and catch up on my sleep on the way home.

Brilliant idea yeah!!!!! No! Ok maybe I shouldn’t have done any of it. Now I could say ‘I wish I hadn’t gone out without a helmet firstly’. But it was Cyprus after all. That kind of thing doesn’t happen there does it? I might say ‘wish I hadn’t had a drink at all if I was riding back’, but then a couple never hurt anyone !! Maybe I wish I hadn’t gone on that shortcut. I could wish I hadn’t gone out. I could then wish maybe that I hadn’t even then gone to Cyprus. But then you get into the realms of ‘I wish I hadn’t gone to Birmingham’, or ‘I wish I studied more or did something else’. I could even wish I hadn’t been born on a Tuesday!!!!! But it has happened and I must get on in life now.

What the falling of the moped left me with was grazes on my arm and legs, and a few stitches over my left eye. What not wearing a helmet and banging my head, however lightly has left me with paralysis of my right side (which is getting better) a substantial memory deficiency (compare to what it was) and a new career.

I have a very noticeable limp, as my right leg was totally paralysed at first. I was in a wheelchair at first but no wheelies this time as my right arm is even more paralysed. Even to this day I can hold things if they are put into that hand but I can’t pick things up and the hand is usually very tight with the arm tensing up.