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In the 1970s, a lot of men died in the Troubles here in Derry. Men were just dropping dead, and my father was one of them. He was 50 years of age. 

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Then when I hit 50, I started getting all these strange symptoms. I was getting depressed over the simplest of things which wasn’t me. My joints started going; I was hearing all these creaks.

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I was getting medications for joint pain and stomach problems, plus antidepressants. I believe that the doctors thought that these were three separate things.

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Without a test I’d probably be dead. My wife’s a nurse and she kept pushing for tests.

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The doctor said, ‘your iron level is 3,500,’ and the first thing that kept coming into my head was my dad.  They were saying to me, you’re very lucky, because a lot of people just like your father would get this in the heart, the liver; cirrhosis, liver cancer, heart failure. My liver was tested, and it was fine.

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If we were to test all the children at birth around this area, we’d save millions of pounds in treatment and we’d save thousands of lives in the grief and heartache that I went through. 

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