Amber Online

Steve Burns

Well it all started from a cut finger, from a step ladders I fell off and cut me finger and 3 days later I had to go to the Jubilee Casualty Department, they cut the infection out of my finger and I was off work for 7 days. When back to work in June, 7 weeks later on August 10th. 1984 I felt bad. So I went to me GP and I collapsed in the GP's surgery, whipped me into casualty. They didn't know what it was, this was the 10th till the 15th August 1984. They didn't know whether it was pleurisy or heart attack or bornholms and then eventually on the 15th they found that it was something to do with the spinal cord. So they transferred me to a neurologist up in Newcastle and he diagnosed an abcess on me spine, which had crushed me spinal cord, which left me paralysed. After the operation, I was in there for a month or so, and then I was transferred to Hexham Spinal Unit where I spent several months rehabilitating.