23/09/2013

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:00:07. > :00:19.A ticking time bomb on our beaches. If I had the equivalent of what an

:00:19. > :00:26.average bird has on its stomach, I would have this. We have got the

:00:26. > :00:29.latest research on the damage to wildlife and helping with the

:00:29. > :00:37.clean—up. The Essex residents whose homes have

:00:37. > :00:41.burnt ten times in ten years. The whole design is a disaster. It was

:00:41. > :00:48.as if it was designed to be burnt. We get the verdict from a fire

:00:48. > :00:57.expert and ask their council how they are going to make them safe.

:00:57. > :01:05.James shares his inspirational story and says thank you to one of the

:01:05. > :01:10.people who saved his life. I want to grab hold of her and say thank you.

:01:10. > :01:11.Revealing the stories that matter closer to home, this is Inside Out

:01:11. > :01:28.East. Tonight, Inside Out is in Lowestoft.

:01:28. > :01:32.I know I am biased but I think that our coastline is absolutely

:01:32. > :01:37.stunning. By bring the children here and go surfing here. There is

:01:37. > :01:44.something that is threatening our beaches and the sea and that is our

:01:44. > :01:48.rubbish. A marine expert looks at what it is doing to our wildlife and

:01:48. > :01:52.what is being done about it. The beautiful east coast of

:01:52. > :01:56.England, miles of sand and opened the. You just can't beat it. But

:01:56. > :02:01.this stretch of coast, like many others in Britain, has a problem —

:02:01. > :02:08.and it's caused by us. I'm defined by the sea but over the

:02:09. > :02:14.years I've seen a lot less fish and lot more of this — plastic. There is

:02:14. > :02:21.a lot less fish and a lot more plastic.

:02:21. > :02:22.I've been diving the world's oceans for the best part of four decades.

:02:22. > :02:30.And plastic waste is an increasing problem. Even the pristine looking

:02:30. > :02:31.lake near my home has become a dumping ground for rubbish of all

:02:31. > :02:40.shapes and sizes and plastic debris worries me the most. It's out there

:02:40. > :02:41.in the ecosystem, getting into food chain and harming wildlife. And

:02:41. > :02:47.as a top of the food chain predator myself, goodness knows what it might

:02:47. > :02:51.be doing to me. They cannot use things like fishing nets and lines.

:02:52. > :02:53.We do not put that in there. This is Scarborough, one of the east

:02:53. > :03:00.coast's most popular resorts. We have been doing these clean—ups all

:03:00. > :03:05.around the UK for 20 years. The main reason we are trying to do it is to

:03:05. > :03:13.collect hard data on the type of letter that we are finding.

:03:13. > :03:14.So armed with a bag, gloves and a healthy desire to get stuck in —

:03:14. > :03:19.let's see what I can find. For me, it's an alarming problem. Especially

:03:19. > :03:25.as nearly all of this rubbish is stuff we carelessly throw away. Even

:03:25. > :03:32.a little bit of plastic like that, you know, it is only a small piece

:03:32. > :03:34.on this otherwise clean beach but as soon as that gets into the sea and

:03:34. > :03:40.starts to break down then the real problems begin. Then it becomes

:03:40. > :03:45.micro—plastic and micro—plastic gets into the birds and fish and as. It

:03:45. > :03:47.is in the food chain, a disaster. 70% of marine litter is plastic and

:03:47. > :03:52.the vast majority of debris comes from the land. Here is the bottom of

:03:53. > :03:57.a traffic cone. Sadly enough, UCB is blown everywhere. Boeing of

:03:57. > :04:03.roadworks or... Big Es. —— blowing. You look at that and do not realise

:04:03. > :04:07.that another huge plastic bag full of sand is inside it. This is

:04:07. > :04:18.incredibly hazardous. When this does break down, it becomes a magnet for

:04:18. > :04:24.more toxins. This is a seven metre long piece of hazardous waste. The

:04:24. > :04:32.fibrous themselves, nylon or plastic rope. This breaks down, enters the

:04:32. > :04:38.food chain and all of these bits leach out into the sea. Then I

:04:38. > :04:44.think, I will take responsibility. I am now the owner of a seven metre

:04:44. > :04:51.long piece of toxic waste. What will I do with this? I will drag it back

:04:51. > :04:58.and I hope this might enter our recycling pack. All in all, not a

:04:58. > :05:00.bad haul for an hour's work — nine kilos of waste But it's not just the

:05:00. > :05:07.big items of plastic that we need to be worried about.

:05:07. > :05:08.In its raw form, plastic is moved around the globe as billions of tiny

:05:08. > :05:18.pellets that will be remoulded at a later date. And when these items

:05:18. > :05:20.find their way into our oceans, you can see how easy it is for a fish or

:05:20. > :05:26.bird to mistake them for a tasty snack. We are trying to see if

:05:26. > :05:34.toxins attached to the service are getting into the tissues of the

:05:34. > :05:34.food chain and we could be eating food chain and we could

:05:34. > :05:41.these toxins if we are eating seafood. It is a big worry and there

:05:41. > :05:42.is a lot of research going into that at the moment. It is a sobering

:05:42. > :05:48.thought. You might wonder where we would be without plastic. We are not

:05:48. > :05:54.the only species to have developed a special relationship with this

:05:54. > :05:55.synthetic material. At Britain's biggest mainland gannet colony at

:05:55. > :05:56.Bempton near Bridlington, generations of birds have learnt to

:05:56. > :06:05.live with our waste, lining their nests with discarded plastic netting

:06:05. > :06:06.and ropes. But wildlife and plastics and ropes. But wildlife and plastics

:06:06. > :06:16.don't mix well. And to find out more, I'm going to get closer to a

:06:16. > :06:17.sea bird than I've ever done before. These are fulmars, true ocean going

:06:17. > :06:18.sea birds of the waters around Britain. They're beautiful animals

:06:18. > :06:24.and close relatives of albatrosses. And here at the Dove Marine science

:06:24. > :06:30.lab near Newcastle, research is underway to see how much plastic

:06:30. > :06:31.waste they're consuming. The all sorts of rubbish from the Ocean

:06:31. > :06:36.service. Almost every of them that flies out here has some plastic

:06:36. > :06:40.their stomach. On average, it would be about 0.3 grams in the North Sea.

:06:40. > :06:47.In their stomach. It might not look that serious in a small jar but I

:06:47. > :06:53.always scale up the form to a human body mass. In that case, this is the

:06:53. > :07:02.average content of one of thestomachs. If I had the

:07:02. > :07:08.equivalent, I would have this? The problem of all of this in cuts is

:07:08. > :07:13.that it would take up food room. Yes.

:07:13. > :07:18.Researchers have been collecting dead fulmars — and carrying out

:07:18. > :07:22.autopsies — and the results have been surprising. What do we do

:07:22. > :07:30.first? On the face of it, these are healthy

:07:30. > :07:35.looking birds that have just met an unfortunate end. Initial checks show

:07:35. > :07:41.them to be adults. But to see why they died, we're going to have to

:07:41. > :07:45.take a look inside their stomachs. Not a diseased, not covered in foil.

:07:45. > :07:49.It has not had any form or anything like that. It is a relatively

:07:49. > :07:54.healthy looking example. It is not a pretty sight seeing what these birds

:07:54. > :08:08.have eaten. That is certainly plastic. That looks like, that could

:08:08. > :08:17.be a plastic box, top of a bottle or anything. The amazing thing is, is

:08:17. > :08:21.that was in me, it would be 100 times the size of this. Something

:08:21. > :08:29.about that big sitting in my stomach. It would have an enormous

:08:29. > :08:33.effect. Not only would it take up valuable space were food should be

:08:33. > :08:37.going in but as this thing is reaching out its heavy metals and

:08:37. > :08:46.other toxic chemicals, it would affect my health. It'd be easy to

:08:46. > :08:54.think that there's not much that can be done to halt the rising tide of

:08:54. > :09:00.plastic waste. Let's face it, there is an enormous amount of plastics

:09:00. > :09:02.going into our seas. The danger is, though, we could feel paralysed by

:09:02. > :09:09.the scale of the problem. But we can do something about it — like the

:09:09. > :09:10.Clean Tyne project on the Tyne in Newcastle. By collecting stuff in

:09:10. > :09:18.the river, we stop it getting into the sea, It's much easier than

:09:19. > :09:19.collecting it out there and this project collects about 400 tonnes of

:09:20. > :09:29.marine debris every single year. —— into the sea. It is much easier.

:09:29. > :09:29.At the government's marine research centre in Lowestoft, our plastic

:09:29. > :09:36.waste problem is being taken seriously. European directives in

:09:36. > :09:37.2016 will mean we'll all have to do more to stop plastics getting into

:09:37. > :09:44.the sea. In a marine environment, it can take hundreds of years for

:09:44. > :09:45.plastic to break down. But do these items ever disappear? It might look

:09:45. > :09:53.like we don't have the items that they are fragmented in so many

:09:53. > :09:57.pieces that are not visible to the naked eye but are still there. It

:09:57. > :09:58.has not disappeared, it is very different form. Does that include

:09:58. > :10:05.biodegradable plastic? Summit just degrade faster so it looks like it

:10:05. > :10:13.is gone but it is not. The big question is just how far up

:10:13. > :10:14.the food chain this plastic waste will actually go — but there's

:10:14. > :10:19.way to minimise the risk to wildlife and ourselves — and that's to do all

:10:19. > :10:24.we can to stop plastic getting in the sea in the first place.

:10:24. > :10:29.It really is up to us to make sure that our rubbish does not end up out

:10:29. > :10:34.here. My e—mail address, if you want to get in touch with me is on your

:10:34. > :10:41.screen. Coming up, James shares his inspirational story of survival. I

:10:41. > :10:45.have forgotten about three weeks of my life from the day of the accident

:10:45. > :10:53.and its unlikely I will ever remember it. We all want to feel

:10:53. > :11:01.safe at home. Imagine how you would feel if the buildings where you

:11:01. > :11:06.lived had caught fire ten times in ten years. That is the reality for

:11:06. > :11:09.hundreds of members of an estate in Essex. They are desperate for their

:11:09. > :11:15.estate to be made safe. I went along to get the experts view. It was

:11:16. > :11:22.approximately just after two o'clock in the morning and I opened the

:11:22. > :11:27.front door, the flames were coming up the stairs, it was roaring. My

:11:27. > :11:35.daughter was asleep, I woke her up and my loft was ablaze and my

:11:35. > :11:40.carpets were smoking and I got my daughter out first and the guttering

:11:40. > :11:41.was alight and the drips of flame, of guttering, were dropping on me.

:11:41. > :11:47.It was the most petrifying experience you could ever go

:11:47. > :11:49.through. It's is a nightmare that all of us dread, a fire at home —

:11:49. > :11:56.and it could happen to anyone of us — but what made Barry Maicher's

:11:56. > :12:01.situation even more serious was just how quickly the fire spread through

:12:01. > :12:02.his home here in Basildon. The fire was so intense it destroyed eight

:12:02. > :12:06.properties. 90 people had to be evacuated. When the fire brigade

:12:06. > :12:10.pulled into Bockingham Green here, it was totally, all this block was

:12:10. > :12:17.totally engulfed within three minutes. Unbelievable. But this fire

:12:17. > :12:24.is far from an isolated incident. Barry and his daughter had only been

:12:24. > :12:25.living on the Felmores estate for just over a year and in that time

:12:25. > :12:34.they'd seen two fires which destroyed three flats before the

:12:34. > :12:35.fire that gutted their own home. There has since been a fourth fire,

:12:35. > :12:44.and the one common factor between all these incidents is that once the

:12:44. > :12:45.fire started it spread quickly — really quickly. The 700 homes here

:12:45. > :12:54.were built in the '70s. There's a mix of council and private housing.

:12:54. > :12:55.The problem is that both the inside construction and external cladding

:12:55. > :13:06.are made of wood. Inside and out. For years the residents have been

:13:06. > :13:06.pleading with the council to either pull them down or make them

:13:06. > :13:08.Many of them literally fear for their lives. I am in fear, this is a

:13:08. > :13:21.three—storey home and my bedroom is on the top floor so I worry about

:13:21. > :13:22.how to get out because it's a long way down. There is no fire escape

:13:22. > :13:23.and I worry about getting trapped at the top of my stairwell and not

:13:23. > :13:35.being able to assist my children on the first floor. And then it's a

:13:35. > :13:35.case of jumping out the window if case of jumping out the window

:13:35. > :13:37.you can't get down. I don't think fear is the actual word for it — I

:13:37. > :13:51.don't think there is a word to replace fear, because I've got two

:13:51. > :13:52.little ones and they are knowing that there is fires going on

:13:52. > :13:53.so it is beyond fear. We can take every precaution we can, turn

:13:53. > :14:14.sockets off, we can close doors, we can have extra fire alarms, but none

:14:14. > :14:15.of that will stop the rate of the fire that spreads when. Fire breaks

:14:15. > :14:16.are not sufficient and there's no escape route for people that can't

:14:16. > :14:16.get out like these gates that are locked and

:14:16. > :14:17.stairwells. My seven—year—old still won't sleep. I'll put him to bed at

:14:17. > :14:45.half six, seven o'clock and it's still nine ten o'clock before he'll

:14:46. > :14:46.even settle/ He'll be up and down the stairs, he won't sleep unless

:14:46. > :14:47.I'm sitting in the room with him and then he'll be awake two or three

:14:47. > :14:48.times a night. I mean, I speak to a lot of mums up the school and the

:14:48. > :14:49.play school and that, and there are still quite a number of us that are

:14:49. > :14:49.still sleeping in the downstairs because we are not quite settled

:14:50. > :14:51.enough yet. And I know people that have bought their homes here that

:14:51. > :15:28.are now bending over backwards to try and sell them again. A recent

:15:28. > :15:28.government report found fires in timber—framed buildings spread

:15:28. > :15:29.further than in brick—built properties. Essex Fire and Rescue

:15:29. > :15:30.Service automatically send three fire engines to any incident at

:15:30. > :15:30.Felmores because fires here have spread so fast. The Fire Service has

:15:30. > :15:30.made recommendations for changes, but it's Basildon

:15:30. > :15:31.overall responsibility to ensure overall responsibility to ensure

:15:31. > :15:32.safety here. But you can understand why people living here are terrified

:15:32. > :15:32.because there have been four major fires. Some people have told us

:15:32. > :15:33.they've escaped with their lives, some people have said to us their

:15:33. > :15:33.children won't even sleep at night. You can understand why people are so

:15:34. > :16:17.frightened? Absolutely, though if you actually look at the fire

:16:17. > :16:18.statistics, there have actually been less fires per 100 properties on

:16:18. > :16:18.this estate than on the rest of our housing stocks. But it is a

:16:18. > :16:19.perception. That may be the case there have only been, in your words,

:16:19. > :16:20.a small amount of fires here on this one estate. One fire is one too

:16:20. > :16:21.here due to the design spread here due to the design spread

:16:21. > :16:21.quickly, which is why it's so frightening. And we have to address

:16:21. > :16:22.the problem in the stock that we've got — if we had a perfect world, we

:16:22. > :16:22.would demolish the estate and build it in brick, but the money is

:16:23. > :16:24.not available to the council to enable us to do that. Would you want

:16:24. > :16:24.estate of my choice, but I'd be estate of my choice, but I'd

:16:24. > :17:13.prepared to live here if there was nowhere else for me to live. But the

:17:13. > :17:13.problems aren't just with the design of the estate. We asked building

:17:13. > :17:14.inspector and fire safety expert Arnold Tarling to take a closer look

:17:14. > :17:15.at the homes here and what he found was shocking. I am looking

:17:15. > :17:15.underneath for gaps between the timber and the frame, up which fire

:17:15. > :17:16.will spread if there is a starts below there. I have already

:17:16. > :17:17.checked below and there is a lot of rubbish underneath there, a

:17:17. > :17:18.cigarette end which has dropped and not been extinguished, that sets

:17:18. > :17:18.fire to the rubbish and the firewood starts travelling up the timber.

:17:18. > :17:19.We have problems here straightaway — We have problems here straightaway —

:17:19. > :17:20.this is an ideal area where you would have rubbish dumped and up

:17:20. > :17:20.through. Between the cladding and through. Between the cladding and

:17:20. > :17:22.the wall itself? Yeah, large gaps — you get a fire, you've got the

:17:22. > :18:04.roofing up there, any fire in here will go straight into the roofing

:18:04. > :18:05.and then spread along, you know the whole design is a disaster — it's as

:18:05. > :18:05.if it was designed to be burnt. There are also problems in the

:18:05. > :18:06.stairwells — the walls may look solid but behind them is a timber

:18:06. > :18:06.frame, so any damage can seriously affect the length of time the area

:18:06. > :18:07.can contain the fire. There's a through here that's changed it from

:18:07. > :18:08.one hour to no hours. So that hole renders this useless. It renders the

:18:08. > :18:09.render useless, yes. So it's pointless having this here because

:18:09. > :18:10.of that hole, so what would happen then if there was a fire, would it

:18:10. > :18:10.go through that hole, would it rip through quicker? It would rip

:18:10. > :18:11.through quite quicker and we've got a nice timber staircase to add to

:18:11. > :18:57.the fuel load. And the problems continue up in one of the lofts. So

:18:57. > :18:57.what have you spotted up there, Arnold? Well, basically the party

:18:57. > :18:58.wall has been punctured by timbers going through and somebody

:18:58. > :18:58.some expanding foam in, which won't do any job and it will be flammable

:18:59. > :18:59.anyway. Arnold, what's your assessment of what you have seen

:18:59. > :19:00.here? Felmores has major major problems in regards to fire safety —

:19:00. > :19:00.strip all the cladding to remove the strip all the cladding to remove the

:19:01. > :19:01.asbestos cement boarding behind it, and to re—clad it properly in

:19:01. > :19:01.accordance with current building regulations. I'd even recommend

:19:02. > :19:02.stripping the roofs and re—roofing to ensure that the party wall

:19:02. > :19:03.structures are properly fire—proofed. We put these findings

:19:03. > :19:03.to Basildon Council, who told us although it can make improvements to

:19:03. > :19:04.council homes, it can only advise private tenants. The council said

:19:04. > :19:05.rubbish is cleared regularly. It said the holes in the stairwells had

:19:05. > :19:52.already been reported and would be repaired. Many of the other issues

:19:52. > :19:53.would be addressed through major improvements being carried out on

:19:53. > :19:53.the estate over the next year. Come. We've announced this week that

:19:53. > :19:54.we are going to install a sprinkler system in the properties, so that is

:19:54. > :19:55.one means of damping down the fire and you can see behind us the new

:19:55. > :19:55.cladding — this is the first section to have been

:19:55. > :19:56.cladding which is again a fire—resistant cladding, so there

:19:56. > :19:56.they will combine together to reduce they will combine together to reduce

:19:56. > :19:57.the risk of fire. was unconvinced by the improvements.

:19:57. > :19:58.more than a rain screen that could more than a rain screen that could

:19:58. > :19:59.crack under heat in minutes. Underneath is a combustible membrane

:19:59. > :19:59.and plywood sheet which he says would burn and spread fire. In his

:19:59. > :20:00.view, though slightly improved, the building has not been fire—proofed.

:20:00. > :20:15.The council told us the new cladding met current building regulations,

:20:15. > :20:16.had been chosen in liaison with Essex Fire and Rescue Service and

:20:16. > :20:17.resist fire for 75 minutes. But resist fire for 75 minutes. But

:20:17. > :20:17.former resident Barry Maicher says he is not convinced. Hello. It is

:20:17. > :20:30.great to be here. About 2.5 years ago I nearly lost the chance to say

:20:30. > :20:31.that again, so believe me it is great to be here.

:20:31. > :20:32.James Piercy is lucky to be alive. Nearly three years ago, James and

:20:32. > :20:33.his family, who live in Norfolk, were involved in a terrible

:20:33. > :20:48.accident. His life would never be the same again. We were just having

:20:48. > :20:49.an ordinary trip out in the car but there was a freak blow out in the

:20:49. > :20:50.tyre, the tyre burst and the car spun off the road and hit a tree.

:20:50. > :21:05.The result of that accident, tragically my wife was killed and I

:21:05. > :21:06.suffered a very serious head injury. Fortunately, my children who were in

:21:06. > :21:06.was very hard, coping with the loss badly hurt. Coming out of

:21:06. > :21:07.was very hard, coping with the loss of my wife and I took care for three

:21:07. > :21:18.children. —— and trying to care three children. On a bad day, I

:21:18. > :21:20.didn't want to go to work or get out of bed. The children kept me going.

:21:20. > :21:27.I had to get up to look after them. James spent nearly a month at

:21:27. > :21:27.Addenbrooke's Hospital in Cambridge. A scientist by profession, James now

:21:27. > :21:29.uses his first—hand experience to give talks to help increase

:21:29. > :21:36.understanding of brain injuries. Blessed hemisphere controls the

:21:36. > :21:37.right—hand side of your body, and the damage to the left—hand side

:21:37. > :21:42.caused me more problems than the single clump the right—hand side.

:21:42. > :21:48.Although James now appears perfectly OK, he's still not completely

:21:48. > :21:56.recovered from his injuries. In the impact, the head stops, the brain

:21:56. > :22:02.actually shifts inside and that causes some damage to the brain so

:22:02. > :22:09.what you can see here is quite a large area of bruising and bleeding

:22:09. > :22:17.on the brain and the bit we can see here at the front, that part of the

:22:17. > :22:18.brain seems to deal with behaviour and planning and things like that. I

:22:18. > :22:23.have been fortunate not to suffer from any personality or behavioural

:22:23. > :22:25.change spikes to that damage. The results of these kinds of injuries

:22:25. > :22:29.area enormously from person to person. —— the results of these kind

:22:29. > :22:36.of injuries they are enormously. —— variation or miss leaf.

:22:36. > :22:41.James's brain injury left him with a number of side effects. His speech

:22:41. > :22:47.and balance were affected, while the area behind his right eye was

:22:47. > :22:55.damaged, leaving him with double vision. I asked a friend to take

:22:55. > :22:56.some video of me walking in the garden to see what it is like. If

:22:56. > :23:05.you notice, I keep looking down, I am looking at my right foot because

:23:05. > :23:06.I was not sure where I was, damage to the left—hand side of my brain

:23:06. > :23:07.meant that the awareness of the right—hand side of my body was

:23:07. > :23:13.reduced and that meant that walking down slopes could be quite difficult

:23:13. > :23:18.for me. Can you do this movement with both eyes closed? There is

:23:18. > :23:25.mixed success, I can see, but you are fairly close. You don't need to

:23:26. > :23:32.look at that finger to know where it is. Try it with someone else's

:23:32. > :23:36.finger. That is what this sense of proprioception is. You know where

:23:36. > :23:43.that finger is because it is yours. I suffered from a reduction of that

:23:43. > :23:47.sense, because as well as the damage to the high orbit that we talked

:23:47. > :23:58.about, I also suffered damage to my brain. While out filming with James

:23:58. > :24:02.in Cambridge on a particularly hot day? he began to feel unwell?

:24:02. > :24:11.James's old symptoms started to re—appear. I am getting a little bit

:24:11. > :24:21.tired. And sometimes I get eight which —— I get a twitch and my words

:24:21. > :24:27.do not come out quite right. I probably need to eat something soon.

:24:27. > :24:35.And then I will be all right again. To you know what is going on? What

:24:35. > :24:38.is your brain doing? I think it is just working a bit harder to do

:24:38. > :24:44.normal things. We stopped filming at this point, so

:24:44. > :24:53.we could take James somewhere to eat and drink.

:24:53. > :25:01.An hour later. And James has had a meal, a burger and chips and a pint

:25:01. > :25:05.of lemonade. I have had a rest, I have eaten something, I am feeling

:25:05. > :25:13.fine again. My speech is better, I am not shaking my head as much as I

:25:13. > :25:19.was before, I am ready to go onto the next part of the day. The

:25:19. > :25:20.accident to his brain has left James with no first—hand memory of his

:25:20. > :25:31.accident. Everything he knows comes from what others have told him about

:25:31. > :25:32.it. Imagine you are working on the computer and your child comes along

:25:32. > :25:39.and pulled the plug out. That would be bad. You would go into safe mode

:25:39. > :25:44.when you restarted. A strange thing happens when you have a bad head

:25:44. > :25:45.injury called post—traumatic amnesia, it means you forget things.

:25:45. > :25:51.I have forgotten about three weeks of my life from the accident

:25:51. > :25:52.is unlikely I will ever remember is unlikely I will ever remember

:25:52. > :26:00.that. It's typical of James to want to know as much as he can

:26:00. > :26:00.happened to him. He's come to happened to him. He's come to

:26:00. > :26:13.Cambridge Airport today to meet one of the people who saved his life.

:26:13. > :26:13.It's the first time they've met since the accident. I am feeling

:26:13. > :26:14.nervous. I am not quite sure what this is going to be like, I am a

:26:14. > :26:22.little worried that I am going to cry. I feel like I just want to grab

:26:22. > :26:24.hold of the person and say you. I will try and be appropriate

:26:24. > :26:32.if I can. Hello. It is so good to be conscious. It is nice to finally

:26:32. > :26:34.meet you. I am pleased you are doing well. It is just crazy to meet you

:26:34. > :26:38.but thank you so much. You are very welcome. Do you remember anything

:26:38. > :26:44.about my accident? I do. What do you remember? I can't remember anything.

:26:44. > :26:48.It was very upsetting for everybody, your wife passed away and we were

:26:48. > :26:52.trying to hide that from you and your children will . It adds a lot

:26:52. > :26:59.of extra pressure on people. We try to do the best for people from a

:26:59. > :27:05.medical and emotional point of view. When we got to you, you were

:27:05. > :27:09.semiconscious and you were thrashing around like this which is often what

:27:09. > :27:15.people do with a brain injury, so it is difficult to oxygenate you

:27:15. > :27:20.because you will not let us and it is difficult to get access to you.

:27:20. > :27:27.You will not let us. What we managed to do was quickly, almost, hold you

:27:27. > :27:34.down to get the cannula in and we could see date you a little bit and

:27:34. > :27:36.we could take over the king after the amount of oxygen that is going

:27:36. > :27:41.to your brain. We had to give your brain the best chance of recovery.

:27:41. > :27:46.And the recovery has been fantastic. I still sometimes get quite tired,

:27:46. > :27:51.and find things difficult to do. I am looking forward to building a new

:27:51. > :27:56.life and going back to work and I think I am lucky. I am lucky to live

:27:57. > :27:59.in England, lucky to be near the air ambulance with a doctor involved,

:27:59. > :28:07.lucky to be near Addenbrooke's Hospital. It is when you come if you

:28:07. > :28:15.have a bang on the head. So I am really lucky to be able to stand up

:28:15. > :28:16.and talk to you guys all about it, so thanks very much for coming

:28:16. > :28:20.tonight. APPLAUSE

:28:20. > :28:27.That is it from Lowestoft. You can e—mail me if you think there

:28:27. > :28:33.is anything we should be looking at. I will see you next week when I will

:28:34. > :28:39.be revealing these stories from the East. The machines which can lose

:28:39. > :28:46.your fortune in moments. Is it time to banish them from our High Street?

:28:46. > :28:49.And the return of the otter is a conservation success story, so why

:28:49. > :28:56.do some people say culling them is the only way to save other wildlife

:28:56. > :28:57.in our rivers? Revealing the stories that matter closer to home. That is