In the summer of 1995, I started getting dizzy. It wasn’t very bad then so we didn’t take much notice of it. By Christmas time it was worse and I didn’t like heights or coming down the stairs on my own. Mummy thought it might be my ears and the liquid inside them moving around that made me dizzy. It began to get worse so Mummy asked the school nurse if she should take me to the doctors and the nurse said yes.

The doctor thought I was OK but two weeks later I caught a virus and I had to go to the hospital because the doctor thought I might have meningitis. After this I kept on seeing double and I was so dizzy that I couldn’t walk in a straight line. Dr. Nicholls my paediatrician, noticed that I had a crooked smile too and said I should have a brain scan. I didn’t like the idea of having a scan because I was scared that there would be bad results. Mummy still thought it might be my ears but I wasn’t convinced.