大象传媒

I think it was in 1940 that I caught Diphtheria. I was six years old and, apparently, I had caught the disease from a splinter from a school desk.

I was very ill and was in a coma for three days. I knew nothing about what happened when they took me in the ambulance to the isolation hospital at the top of the hill.

Apparently, it was touch and go but the Doctors gave me penicillin, which was in very short supply at the time, because most of the drug went to the soldiers on the front line. It was, also, not widely known of at the time. The penicillin definitely saved my life.

I remember, when I came round, I was in a room on my own, with a nurse on duty all the time.

The room was quite big and had two big sash windows. Later, my Mother came to see me but, as I was strictly isolated, she had to stand on a ladder, which was leaning on the wall at the side of one of the sash windows. They pushed the top window down and she was able to see me over the top of the window, standing on the ladder outside.

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