The beginning of my story was the day I thought I had piles, I went to the chemist and bought some cream. However this didn’t work. So I went to see my doctor. He said I had a swollen area near my anus and prescribed anti-inflammatory tablets. These didn’t work either.

I went back again and the surgery was full. I had to stand and sweat was dripping off me. This time he prescribed antibiotics. After two days I rang my doctor as I could hardly walk and he booked me into the hospital the same day. I was taken to the operating theatre to have what they thought was an abscess drained.

My wife received a phone call at work to say that I was in intensive care. I had necrotising fasciitis. I had a large area of flesh removed and was on morphine. I had been given a colostomy system and had a catheter and loads of tubes everywhere. They had to keep taking me back to theatre to cut off a little more dead flesh. I was in Dewsbury hospital for 7 weeks and was transferred to Pinderfields in Wakefield for a skin graft. This didn’t take.

I was in and out of hospital quite a lot. The wound healed up but burst open again and again. The colostomy was reversed, but I still have infections, which break open in the area of the wound. The hospital is baffled.

5 years on – I’m still alive. I was lucky.

Bart