Andrew Blyth was asked by editor Huw Mainwaring to write an article for the Club's Newsletter:-
"I'm home!
After just short of nine months, I've finally escaped from my sentence in Stanmore! So far the new millennium has not quite been my year, but things can only, and are getting better, albeit very slowly.
For those of you unlucky enough to have seen me since I returned to Hexham, will have noticed that my wheelchair has hopefully been garaged for good.
A couple of weeks ago Huw Mainwaring contacted me about writing a piece for the Tynedale Newsletter, here it is.
Last night at about 6 o'clock I made the 10 minute/200yds walk around to Huw's house to discuss this article. (Ed - 'So Huw's daughter had nothing to do with the requirement for a personal visit! Like Father like Son')
After standing on the doorstep for 10 minutes using all my considerable arm power attempting to push the door bell in vain, I gave it up as a bad job and phoned from the front door step.....
'Huw your door bell doesn't work"
'How do you know?'
'Because I've been pushing it for the last 10 minutes , let me in its f****** freezing'
Eventually I made it into the house 20 minutes after leaving home.
You might think what a carry on, but for me this is so exciting, not going to Huw and Annie's but the fact I can now do a few things on my own with only the help of crutches.
This is the first step on what will hopefully be my road to complete independance, how long this will take and how far it will go I don't know but from the initial diagnosis everything is a bonus.
This week I started physio again at Hexham General after a 10 days break. I was actually really pleased to be back working on things, although I've enjoyed the break from hospital massively. I've felt impatient that a day without physio is a day wasted.
Getting out and doing things is important but if I could have five hours of physio a day and I'd still want more, it is just the single minded attitude I've adopted towards getting better.
The treatments and exercises on a daily basis have become very tedious and monotonous but getting back to normal is just such a huge carrot to aim for.
The injury has taught me a great deal, my appreciation of virtually everything has increased so much: I never imagined being able to pick my nose at will would be so satisfying.
But seriously it is impossible to imagine what it is like to have everything taken away from you in an instant. People speak to me and say how unlucky I've been, but at the moment I feel so terribly lucky that I have another chance, so to speak, and I'm not going to give up one little bit"