It happened so quickly; from the scratchy beginnings of a sore throat to a full blown abscess which threatened to suffocate me, in less than two and a half days.

As a child of the ‘fifties’, suffocation seemed a tad too trivial to merit calling an ambulance. Back then victims would have to demonstrate a much more profound need, such as lying broken, beneath a bus, before anyone would commit to such a radical action. More probably, a member of the family would be sent down to the telephone box at the end of the street with four old pennies, to call the doctor.