Big car crash when I was 19. Upside down in a field for 3/4 of an hour before being finally cut out by the fire brigade. In intensive car for a few days with collapsed lung, fractured skull, dislocated elbow and numerous cuts and bruises. They had told my parents that if my lung didn't reinflate, then they didn't know how long I would have. Luckily it reinflated of it's own accord within 24 hours, and I awoke to find my Mum sitting at the foot of the hospital bed a day after the accident (unconscious for over 16 hours). I couldn't figure out why the fuck my Mum was in my bedroom watching me sleep . I don't remember anything about the accident at all and when they told me my car had "landed on me", I thought I had been working on it, and the jack had failed and fallen on me .

When they clarified what had happened, all I kept asking was my best mate okay? I had lost so much of my memory at the time, that I couldn't remember that I had dropped him off a few hours before the accident and was on my way to see my girl-friend .

Was an X1/9 and luckily I it was a beautiful day, so I had the targa roof off. If it had been in place, then I wouldn't be here today, as the fractured skull was received from landing in a freshly ploughed field, and the rear roof line where the targa panel clips to was below my head level as I was trapped upside down . So if the panel had been in place, then it would have been this that would have impacted my head instead of the soft earth . Some say this is the reason I am the way I am .

Took over a year for me to have full extension of my elbow, but I was out of the hospital within 8 days (hated the place, all I my body wanted to do was sleep 18 hours a day to recover, and the nurses kept waking me up ), but off work for 6 weeks.

From then on, I have always treated life as when your number's up, its up and there is nothing you can do about it. That day was just not my time to go (despite my best efforts ), so rather than making me more cautious, I think that is what turned me into an adrenaline junky .