I am 43 years old. For the last eight years I've lived with my mum. In July 2021, I was driving to the shops, with my mum in the car, when a white transit-sized van came towards me, lost control at high speed, and smashed into the driver's side of my Honda Jazz hatchback. The van driver was uninsured and over the drug-drive limit. He was not injured, and tried to leave the scene of the accident.

I suffered serious head injury, along with injuries to the whole right side of my body, including shoulder, hip and knee.

We were trapped in the car, and there was a danger of it catching fire so we had to be cut out quickly. We were flown by air ambulance to Newcastle(me), and Glasgow(mum). I was in an induced coma, after they set my bones and stitched and stapled my wounds.

It took a long time to come back to some kind of consciousness and, when I did come round, my mum was there holding my hand. I knew there was something different about me – I couldn't remember a lot of things that I knew I should be able to remember. I used to teach chemistry and knew the periodic table completely, but now it's gone, or it's somewhere I can't connect to just now.

The pictures of me were taken in March/May 2022. My mum and dad used to take me into the activity room at Dumfries & Galloway hospital and helped me to start walking on crutches. That seems like a lifetime ago. I'm now in Midpark Hospital in Dumfries. I'm on a secure ward for older people with dementia and similar problems. They don't have a ward for 'innocent motorists with head-injuries'. I don't walk any more. I've put on a fair bit of weight. I have my own room here where I can stare at the walls and ceiling. There is no TV available to me so I get no news, sport or current affairs. There is no stimulation, no activities, no physiotherapy. It's hard to explain the boredom and loneliness, so I cry a lot.

My mum is terrified of driving – but she drives here to see me every day. It's a 2-hour round trip with a restricted visiting time of 1 hour. My dad has a 6-hour round trip drive to see me so I don't see him very often – he can only have 1-hour visits too. The staff have to watch me during visiting times. That's probably why the visits are restricted, but no-one admits that. I am stuck in a wheelchair and they have to watch in case I 'run away'.