When you’ve got it, well you don’t really, you just – it’s a case of you go to bed, then you get up, get on the settee or something with your leg up or in a, same as I say, in a bowl (of ice), just try and get the, get it calmed down a bit, and that’s basically it, you know, it’s so, for how long you’ve got it, for me, when I was working especially, it’s a, you know, your lifes on hold.

I was a piece worker so what I made I got paid for, if I didn’t make it, I didn’t get paid, so and, you know, we were, young family then, so – but I’m of the temperament that I go to work, you know, I’ve been to work with pneumonia, that’s because I didn’t know I’d got it like, same as gout, but I worked three weeks with it, the first time, but I kept knocking it, and eventually I just had to give in and go to the Doctors and get signed off for a week or two and any other time after that, I knew what I’d got and my wife would dose me and I’d dose myself with painkillers and foot, same as I say, in a bowl (of ice), just try and get it down, so I could go to work and you’d go back before you were right, but poverty dictates doesn’t it sometimes, so you go back and I come from an age that that’s how you work, you know. Daft really but, you know, I’m stubborn.

Did you tell your colleagues or your employers at work that you’d got gout?

No, I didn’t tell the – well the guys I worked with obviously knew – and I think at that time, management weren’t that bothered with you, or, because in the pottery industry, it is antiquated, or it was at that time, and really all they wanted you to do was do your day’s work and not really bothered, and we weren’t – I mean, in fairness, you know, you clock on, you do your work and you go that’s it, and they pay you a lot of money, you know what I mean, at that time we were very well paid, sanitary casters, probably on a par, at one time in the early 70’s, 80’s, we were on a par with Doctors, you know so; and theres a worldwide demand for us, but you worked for it, and you’d just grin and bear it a lot of times, take some tablets, painkillers.

The doctor said it was I’d dehydrated, and he says that can cause gout, so I’ll take his word for it. I was mechanised casting, which, it was very easy compared to bench; bench you just, you run for 10 hours, at that time, and that was the difference, I’d gone from a nice steady job where you know, 8 hours steady; you still produce but it was a lot steadier, and your lifting was more central and everything, better lifting, whereas when I went back on a bench, you just, you know, wed get there at 5 o’clock in the morning and you wouldn’t stop running about really until 1, you know, get the bulk of your day finished, and you’d be sweating for, and you’d be working at that time, because you had steam under your bench, under your moulds and everything to dry and everything, so you’d got steam all day, so you’re working, even in winter, you’re working in 120 degrees, no problem, every day so, yeah, with coming from an easy job back to a hard job again, you just sweat like theres no tomorrow, you know, it really; it’s hard work.

And do you think that…

I think it could have been yeah, yeah, yeah. Because obviously I’d drink, you’d drink tea all day because you know, people, everybody brews up, so you know, you’d got like 30 blokes brewing up, so you’ve always got a cup of tea all day, but I wasn’t drinking any water or anything, so it could be, yeah, yeah. Because I went from like, not having a sweat, a bead of sweat all day, to completely covered, soaking wet all, until, well 5 or 6 hours, 7 hours, you know and I think that made a difference.

Well the big toe just swelled up and, very tender, you know, if you put a feather on it, it hurt. You try and sleep with your leg out of the bed and all that, you can’t stand the blanket on it or anything. It’s hard to walk, obviously, and for a time, when I first had it, I did work on it and walk, like on the side of my foot, because I’m a bit stupid like that, but I had to stop in the end, because with it being a heavy job and all, I just couldn’t do it, so I was off until it subsided really, a couple of weeks, which you know, it’s very painful, a very drawn out time, where you just, it just takes you off your feet really.

I’m on allopurinol for it and – the 300mg now – and I’ve been, I haven’t had gout for 3, 4 years, which I’m pleased with because I haven’t really cut anything out, I haven’t cut red meat out, I haven’t cut beer out, and where I’ve got relations who have, and still get it on a regular; he gets it monthly and I’ve been free, like I say, at least 3 or4 years, which I’m really pleased with.

I think it’s just a bit of moderation. I think you can have everything if you know, you don’t have it to an extent – well my diet hasn’t really changed and like I say, I’ve got a brother in law who cut all – he doesn’t eat mackerel, he doesn’t eat red meat, he doesn’t eat this, he doesn’t drink that – but he still gets it, you know, I think, it’s just one of them things, but I’m sticking to my; you know, I take my tablets regularly every day, and I drink a lot of water, I drink between 6-8 pints a day and I have done for a long time and that seems to work for me, you know. I think everybody would be different, but for me it works, and I’ll stick to it.

I think it is one of them that when you’ve got the pain, you’ll take something, if somebody says that will work, you’ll try it, you know, and if it works for you, great, you know, it might be eating a cucumber, I don’t know, but if somebody says it works, you’d try it, because when the pain is there, it’s, you just want it gone.