I was told not to drive, understandably, by my doctor. And in fact I made the mistake of putting my hands up to the DVLA, who immediately requested my license back. So I would recommend that yes, you stop driving, but you hold onto your license because it takes a very long time to get it back [laughs].

Have you managed to get it back now?

Oh, I have, yes, yes.

So you haven’t had to make any lifestyle changes, really, apart from the driving, which – how did you how did you manage to persuade the DVLA to give you back your license? Did you have to get a letter from the clinic or something or?

Yes, well, they give you forms to fill in, and I initially made the mistake of downloading forms from the, from the website, and mistakenly filled in the forms appropriate to heavy vehicle driving – an easy mistake to make, because it wasn’t terribly highlighted on the first page – and that involved getting a complete medical examination, at some expense, from your GP, which I did. So I provided them with far more information, accidentally, than they needed. Despite that I found them very difficult to deal with. I don’t think, I don’t think it was anything to do with suspicions about the medical situation. I think it’s just the way the DVLA work. In fact, they were highlighted on a Watchdog programme, I believe, on one occasion for inefficiency and incompetence. So I’m inclined to put it down to that. So I just had to keep badgering. In the end, I had to adopt a fairly strong tone with them and demanded to speak to a supervisor, and eventually was put through to one who said, Oh, it so happens that your okay has come through today. [Laughs].

[laughs] How fortuitous.

How fortunate. And that was it. But that was something like- oh, seven or eight months later. And the doctor in the team at Oxford who told me after a month that I was okay to resume driving.

So you had a long time. I mean that’s–.

I had a long time without my license. So, as I say, it’s better not to surrender the license until absolutely necessary, unless it’s absolutely necessary

No, I can only pay the highest of compliments, really. No, I’ve been very professionally dealt with. What more can one ask? [laughs].

And in terms of the research, do you, how long will you continue in the research programme?

Well, I think one signs up for five years. Not – because we’re likely to be moving and don’t know to where, that may not survive five years. It just depends. Although personally I’d be quite happy to keep in touch with it if that’s helpful, but I realise that if I go outside the boundaries that might not be possible for them.

And do they keep you in touch with how the research is going? Do you get any up-dates [study name], or would you like to?

Not especially. I don’t know how that would help them, because obviously it involves more work. I suppose, ultimately, it would be interesting to see what conclusions can be drawn, therefore what advice can be given. Probably more help to the medical profession.

Okay. Is there anything you’d want to say to other people about taking part in research, from your experiences?

Only that I could recommend it, if it’s convenient, physically convenient, for them to manage. Obviously, it involves some travelling from time to time, so it depends where you live, and your means of getting to and from. But they have been very helpful in coming to me occasionally. I mean, the twenty-four hour monitor would have been fitted on my first annual visit, but because I wasn’t able to go back next morning – we were actually going away – they decided to postpone that and make a separate event of it, and came here, on two days. So that’s been very helpful, and I’m sure they would be to anybody who found difficulty in travelling.

Well, with hindsight, because one – and I wouldn’t be alone, who doesn’t really like to bother doctors unless absolutely necessary – if you have something out of the ordinary it’s clearly advisable to do just that. You think at the time that it’s a passing thing, which is going to be hard to pin down, and, as I mentioned, I mentioned the eye problem to my optician who hadn’t suggested that it was anything of that nature to worry about. But there’s also the possibility that it might be, so it obviously could be helpful. But clearly, once I told my GP of the nature of the problem that I’d had he knew immediately what the problem was, and put things into action, so the advice obviously is see your doctor.

In retrospect I realise that I might have had some indication of something that needed attention before. Occasionally, very occasionally, when I’ve been perhaps in the garden, I’d been busy and just stood up for a moment, and the world seemed to go round briefly, and took a few deep breaths and all was right again. And another feature was that occasionally I would experience double vision. I might be watching television and the picture would go woozy, and after ten seconds, normal vision would resume. Since I’ve been on the medication nothing like that has recurred. So I think it’s probably safe to assume that they were indications that something might be amiss.

I had had a busy Sunday in the garden, and at the end of the afternoon, feeling very self-righteous, I went and poured myself a whisky, and sat down to listen to a very noisy piece of music, quite relaxed, and at one point I wanted to move the CD case, only to find that my arm wouldn’t move. I thought, What’s going on? So I thought the first thing to do would be to turn off the hi-fi, and stood up, or rather tried to stand up, and found that I couldn’t. So I eased myself down onto the floor, crawled across the floor, turned off the radio with my left arm, which was fine, and just lay there for a minute or so, and then all was well.

I stood up, went back, and my wife was in the kitchen at the time, so I thought, Well, I don’t want to trouble her. All’s well again. I feel fine. One of those things.

The medication, you said the simvastatins you’d had some side effects with that. What, how did it affect you?

Oh, it affected my digestive system. Yes, I had quite bad diarrhoea. And this was happening, well, the medication was prescribed at the end of October, and towards Christmas, in December, things were starting to happen uncomfortably, and so Christmas was pretty miserable, [laughs] complicated by the fact that we had visitors at New Year who brought the Norovirus with them, so I got that on top. It was a double whammy [laughs].

Not nice.

So, no, I went back to my doctor and told him what had happened, and so – well, of course we didn’t know then that it was the simvastatins that was the problem. I had to cut them all out to eliminate the possibilities one by one. But that was the first one he eliminated. And once that was done, things quietened down. And so I was then prescribed atorvastatins.

And you’ll take that indefinitely, or is it time-limited?

I assume so. I assume I will have to take all these forever, because I haven’t been told to knock any of them off.

What else are you taking?

Aspirin. Coversyl, persantin, twice a day. And atorvastatins.

And no problems with any of the others? They haven’t-?

No.

No?

No. No.

Yes, and of course for a period, was it a three monthly period? I kept daily recordings of my blood pressure, three times a day, using the Blackberry system.

Ah, okay.

Automatic system. I maintained my weekly blood pressure manually. I’ve still got the machine. And periodic visits from the nurse.

They come out here do they or?

Yes.

Oh, okay.

Yes, yes, yes. Last week in fact, as it was the year, the year’s interval, she came and fitted the twenty-four hour monitor.

Tell me a bit more about these things, because these are quite interesting. Let’s talk about the Blackberry blood pressure thing. What, tell, describe what happens with that.

Well, it’s a normal blood pressure machine connected to the Blackberry device, which you simply plug into the mains, press the button and the reading is automatically transmitted straight to the clinic.

So you don’t have to press any buttons on the Blackberry or anything?

No, no. It’s all set up.

That’s good.

Very easy. And that for three times a day for, I think it was over three months. I forget now.

Did you ever forget [laughs]?

No, no, no I didn’t, and I don’t really forget my weekly monitoring, unless something out of the routine happens, like if we go away for a couple of days. And the same with taking my medication. I keep a regular pattern.

Yeah, and what was the other thing you said? There was the Blackberry and then, oh, the twenty-hour monitor. What what’s involved in that?

Very little. Just strapped around and fitted to the waist, and you carry on life as normal, and then you sleep with it. You hear the machine going off every half hour. And then twenty-four hours later it’s removed.

I had had a busy Sunday in the garden, and at the end of the afternoon, feeling very self-righteous, I went and poured myself a whisky, and sat down to listen to a very noisy piece of music, quite relaxed, and at one point I wanted to move the CD case, only to find that my arm wouldn’t move. I thought, What’s going on? So I thought the first thing to do would be to turn off the hi-fi, and stood up, or rather tried to stand up, and found that I couldn’t. So I eased myself down onto the floor, crawled across the floor, turned off the radio with my left arm, which was fine, and just lay there for a minute or so, and then all was well.

I stood up, went back, and my wife was in the kitchen at the time, so I thought, Well, I don’t want to trouble her. All’s well again. I feel fine. One of those things. And a few days passed. I felt perfectly fine, because I normally enjoy good health and continue to do so. And then on the Thursday evening we were both sitting on the settee watching television, and this was rather later in the evening, perhaps about ten o’clock. I made a comment about something that was happening on the TV, and my voice came out rather slurred and once again I found that my right arm was immobile.