For those who don’t know, GBS is a rare neurological disorder affecting 1 to 2 people per 100,000 worldwide each year, where the body's immune system mistakenly attacks its own peripheral nerves, leading to symptoms like tingling, weakness, and potential paralysis. Fortunately, I have made a full recovery, although I believe my balance still continues to improve through regular Pilates sessions.

I was taken ill after a very eventful week which saw the publication of my first crime novel. It began at the Sedbergh book festival where I was excited to be asked by Reginald Hill (author of the Dalziel & Pascoe series) to sign a copy for him “To Reg”. Then it was off for an interview at the Northern Echo, signing at the Muker Show, and visits to Ottakars (now Waterstones) in Darlington and Northallerton where, I quote, my books were “flying off the shelves”. Then, weakened with a virus, I took to my bed and, a week later, lost the use of my legs. Perhaps the saddest thing of all was the fact my new Land Rover Defender was delivered the day I collapsed, and I was unable to drive it for over a year.

I am celebrating the medical care that diagnosed my condition so quickly, treated me, nursed me, and taught me to walk again. I’m so grateful to those people who donate blood, which produces the IgG product that assisted my recovery and that of other GBS patients. Finally I am celebrating that, twenty years on, my 14th novel will soon be published.