So then I went back to work, and I just was getting on and in January 2020 I went back to have a camera down inside me. So I went to the appointment and they didn’t manage to get the camera all the way down but they didn’t say anything to me. They just wrote something down which didn’t actually make any sense to me. What they said was either go straight to casualty now or go straight to the doctors now. I was thinking well why am I going to casualty so I rang my doctor, got an appointment and while I was with him he rang an ambulance. Someone came upstairs with a wheelchair and I was really confused and I said but I can walk.

I had to tell my friend I’m going to Saint James's. I remember going in and they put me in a cubicle and I woke up three weeks later. I did’t have a clue what had gone on or what happened,I knew nothing, I was in ICU. My saving grace was that my family were there every day. Making sure that I was okay. I had been in a drug induced coma all that time

When I came round I felt really awake but they said go to sleep . They took me off the ward and I realised that I had a drain in me. And then found out I had a hole in my esophagus, I'd had fluid on the lung and I had emphysema. Turns out I was really seriously seriously ill, and it wasn’t cancer.

I came home and I was just laid in my bed for three weeks. I couldn’t wash myself, my motor skills had just gone. I got plenty of rest at home and I did’t have to do anything. For about a month I didn’t have to cook or clean. Two weeks after I came out of hospital, Covid had happened and we went into lockdown. So I would watch what was going on on TV and it didn’t really make any sense the fact that people were queueing for supermarkets and there was a shortage of toilet paper didn’t really mean anything to me.

It took me awhile to get better from that and I was still off work. Sept 2020 I was going to bed and I had pain in my stomach and I vomited up blood. So I just went to bed and I thought if I go to sleep it will go away. That was Wednesday night. Well it happened again on the Thursday night and I thought in the morning, I’m going to drop off my car for it's MOT and I’ll go to Saint James's. And I did that, in that order. And I saw the top consultant for stomach problems and that was Friday, the 1st of October. I was there by myself and he was telling me what I needed and the choices I had to make. I said OK I'll trust you, I'll have the operation.

So I had the anaesthetic and then I remember waking up the next day and telling the staff I had had had keyhole surgery and they said you haven’t had keyhole surgery. And then I looked down and I saw that I had a scar right the way down to my navel where they had opened me up and removed my stomach, they took my stomach out and rewired everything.

Staff couldn’t believe that I was back in again and going through this major surgery. What happened was that I had a hole in the bottom of my stomach. So what I was doing was throwing up my stomach. So the surgeon said to me if I’d left it one more night or even one more hour that would be that I would’ve just collapsed and died. I thought wow, but I still took it all in my stride.

When I came round I was still on the heavy medication, so I was talking but my family weren’t understanding everything I was saying. But I got off the phone and they rang each other saying she’s away with the fairies!

Following my operation I was in hospital for 10 days. During this time I was told to eat small amounts of food, well their small amounts and my small amounts were just years apart. I had a horrid weekend because I was eating too much and nothing would stay down. On the Monday the dietician came to see me and she explained what was happening was called the dumping syndrome due to me no longer having a stomach. I didn’t quite get it at first but eventually I did.

The first food I had was some soup and I said I’ll just have half of that so unbeknownst to me it was just far too much because the stomach was now really really small. It was the weekend and the dietician wasn't on duty. When you’ve had your stomach removed and then eat too much it is called a dumping syndrome. Because your stomach is no longer there and your capacity for eating is so small anything extra just comes out, so if you eat too much it comes out anyway it can!

I had to find my own way. So it was just small steps, and then the weight was just dropping off me like crazy after that.

I'M SO BLESSED because I’m still here today AND I’m a lot slimmer than I was in 2020.

So having to change my diet is a small price to pay, and I just get on with it because I’ve got my life. And there’s people around me that never made it to 60. They had less severe things than I’ve had and they’re not here so I’m very grateful I’m here. I’m thankful for everything, I’m thankful for my life and for everything that’s happening in front of me. I’m seeing my children, my grandchildren, things that people can take for granted but I’ve got to 60 and I am on an amazing journey.