I was diagnosed with cirrhosis of the liver, and the possibility – well more than likely – put it down to alcohol. And I’ll put this due to the fact of being in the Royal Navy, 35 years. We worked hard and of course when we got to foreign ports we played hard, and it was just one of those things. It’s a release – get away from the ship, go and have a bit of fun. Have a drink with your mates, even if their rank is higher than yours or lower than yours – once you were ashore having a drink you were on the same level, you could talk about anything. Whereas on the ship at sea you don’t drink, well, tend not to drink, and you’re either ordered from above or you give orders below. Ashore, having a nice drink with friends, there is none of that – it’s just friendship. Well, basically you’re all in the same boat.

So yeah it’s part of my life that I would gladly do over again [emotional pause]. But I think the whole alcohol side of it, if I knew what it was going to do to me, I’d probably be slightly wary of the way I conducted myself. Of course the Navy don’t really – well they do help – but cheap beer, cheap cigarettes – I’ve never smoked, thank God – but cheap beer, it’s always easy to slide down that slippery slope. And looking at a lot of friends that I’ve got, they’re in a similar situation, having done more or less the same amount of time as me in the armed forces. So, yeah, it is a release.