Back in the late 80s, early 90's
They didn't know about Dyslexia, much
As soon as the testing started,
here at the University of Sunderland
it was brilliant.
Literally, everything changed in one day.
I did the test, and by the next day
I was already being tutored by the University.
Which was just unbelievable.
Because, I've never had this in my life.
That led to me, wanting to do more on my course.
I came for the interview for the MA (Radio) Course,
and it just happened to be Andy Cartwright
who I had worked with in television.
He knew me, I'd done stuff for him.
He was really pleased.
He looked at what I had done in the past.
What grades I had now.
And thought 'y'know what?' He'd give me a chance.
I had to come up with something
for what's called the Charles Parker Prize.
It's supported by BBC Radio 4
And, it's just a story
but it has to be true to Charles Parker's style.
He was very much into these ballads.
And it came to a point where I had realised that,
me and my wife had never, ever talked about
the time I when was on life-support.
The title of it is 'Both Sides of Dying'.
Cos', you get my side of it. Which is all fluffy and nice.
But, then her side of it, which is real, and painful.
I was diagnosed with Cushing's Syndrome.
Which is a really rare disease.
One in a million people get it.
Normally women get it, or horses.
So I'm classed as, even more rare.
Too much steroids are made by your body
Too much cortisol is made in your body,
through your pituitary gland here and your adrenals.
I was sixteen and a half stone,
just in the central area.
Some people can get humps on their back,
and they also get what's called 'moon face'.
You sweat a lot.
You have very high blood pressure,
which is the really dangerous side of it.
A lot of doctors, especially in 1990's
and the end of that, into the next part.
They didn't know what Cushing's was.
And this started a long journey of
lots of different types of treatments.
After the third brain op,
basically I had problems.
My brain sack burst, all the juices came out
from my ears and nose over the course of a weekend.
Rushed back into hospital which meant I had
Pneumonia on the chest.
You cure Pneumonia by putting an oxygen mask on.
Which they couldn't
Cos' if I breathed it in,
the hole in my brain would have killed me.
So basically, the only way they could do that
was to put me into a coma.
Put me into a coma for four days.
I see these lights, and then this light.
This light and this light.
Somebody pointed out 'that sounds like a heart monitor'
It was probably me, putting these lights
with the heart monitor that was on at the same time.
I don't know if it's true or not,
but I remember hearing somebody die.
Painfully die, next to me.
What I think I went through,
probably lasted two or three weeks.
It was almost like being in a constant dream,
but not a nice one.
My body reacted and I died
They brought me back to life, type thing
Brought me out of the coma, woke up.
Got out of hospital,
told me the operations had failed anyway.
I still had Cushing's, I had to have my adrenals removed
So they cut the side of my body open,
took a rib out and removed my adrenals.
Which has now left me with the ability to have no fear.
We were pushed towards the door,
I thought 'right, at this point'
As soon as I go out and I see 1,700 feet below me
I'm gonna panic, and I didn't feel anything.
I did a test with the BBC a couple of years back,
where they chucked me off of a 480 foot tower.
The monitor should have been going like this,
and it flat-lined.
When you're a parent, you panic
that your kids are going to hurt themselves.
I should be panicking and I'm not.
There is a real, real downside to the real life of it.
To me, my wife is.
She is the strong person in the family.
I can't even comprehend what it would be like.
Just to sit at somebody's bed,
when they've got tubes down their throat.
and just sit there.
And not be able to say or speak, or do anything.
That's what came out in the recording.
I had to go and apologise to her
She was like 'why?'
Cos' I never knew it.
This is a gold Student Radio Award
If you win this, as the presenter.
As the gold male presenter award
or male-female presenter.
You can walk into Radio One.
Is it my favourite? Not really (laughs).
This one is a New York International Radio Award.
This is the cream of the crop, basically.
The University was very kind,
they flew us out to New York.
There were two of us who had won
and we went to this amazing gala night in Manhattan.
Looking over the city.
I was sat with some people from the BBC,
across in the corner were all these guys from Canada.
It was just a great mingle, it was a lovely atmosphere.
Well yes, it was a bit poncey and it was a bit...
Y'know, a Northern lad drinking champagne. 'Nahh!'
I had to do this speech.
Which, I hadn't planned anything.
So, I made it up. It was basically to tell,
students, especially people with Dyslexia and stuff
not to give up, to keep going.
So that kind of means the most to me.
That's the one that sits
Right smack in the middle of the window,
with my daughters both aside it.
I came out with a distinction
and really I couldn't ask for much more.
That's how I've ended up now, working back in television.
Back in theatre, I've worked in Radio 4 now.
But if it wasn't for coming and saying,
'Look, I'm Dyslexic'.
'Is there something you can do about it here at University?'
I would never have been tested,
I would never had gotten strategies to deal with it
I would have never changed.
I would have never have written anything.
I'm trying write books, I'm trying to write plays now.
I'm always writing stuff down,
and it's just because of the help I got.
Tell everybody, and be proud of it.
You've got something different about you,
why not be different?