h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I was five years old when I lost my right eye (well, I didn't lose it, it's still there but it is sightless). I was at primary school mucking about with friends, as one does, when an argument ensued over who had the sharpest pair of scissors. And as the way these things happen when five year olds are involved, tempers flared and my friend threw the scissors at me. By a million-to-one chance they actually hit my eye. Vision was lost instantly and the world suddenly went weird on me.

The teachers rushed me to the school nurse and called my parents. I remember being terribly disappointed by the complete lack of blood. I wasn't in pain. The parents arrived, as did the ambulance and they rushed me to Chelmsford & Essex Hospital. Most of this I don't remember (too long ago). I spend months in hospital because I contracted some sort of disease which made me very ill - ill enough, apparently, for even the doctors to become very concerned.

Hospital was great (for a five year old). From my bed I could see down the Women's Ward where they had a big cinema screen and I used to watch Laurel & Hardy movies most mornings, terrific. The food was rubbish but the nurses and doctors were kind. Just before Christmas (only a few days away) the Wombles visited and I ate so much chocolate that I was sick for hours.

I finally got to go home on Christmas Eve. I didn't suffer any trauma (although one of the irritating side-effects of losing my eye was hayfever!) and apart from a small amount of time bumping into things it hasn't affected my life at all. I've never held a grudge against the guy who threw the scissors, we were five years old after all - we weren't to know the consequences. It is, as they say, just life.