Mark Pritchard, aged 55, writer and civil servant from Newport.

“I MET Sarah, my now wife, in 2008. It was only six months from when we met that I had the brain haemorrhage.

It was on April 8, 2009. We call it our ‘brainiversary’ as we got married almost to the day two years later.

In November 2012, I started writing my book, I’m Never Ill, about my experience. It was just meant to be a short read for brain injury sufferers to help ease the long, dreary hours in hospital. However, as time went on it became bigger and bigger, until I realised that it was going to be a more substantial read.

When I was about a third of the way through it, about six months later, Sarah was diagnosed with breast cancer. She underwent an operation over the summer and started chemotherapy in the September and finished in January.

In the February of 2014 she underwent radiotherapy. It was then that we went to Egypt and in the summer of that year we went on our Route 66 trip. We didn’t have a bucket list as such it was just something we wanted to do.

Before her course of chemotherapy, I told her that whether we could afford it or not, once it was all over we’d drive Route 66 from Chicago to Los Angeles. It was the best holiday ever.

Sarah has only one heartthrob – apart from me, of course – Pierce Brosnan. We happened to stumble upon him on Hollywood Boulevard, signing autographs as he was arriving for the premier of his film November Man.

It was such a buzz for Sarah – I told her I’d arranged it but she didn’t believe me.

We didn’t have a bucket list as such it was just something we wanted to do.

As far as I’m concerned my brain haemorrhage and Sarah’s cancer was the best thing that ever happened to us in terms of our outlook on life.

It’s with care I say it as there are many who suffered with brain haemorrhages or cancer who don’t feel the same way.

However speaking honestly, about how it has affected us – it has been the best thing to happen to us. We appreciated our health. We live for today more now.

I am very lucky to be alive.

It’s not exact figures but to put it in perspective – 33 per cent of people who have a brain haemorrhage die on the spot, 33 per cent of people die in hospital and 33 per cent of people survive but are severely disabled.

That leaves the one per cent who are lucky like me that slip the net unscathed.

I went into a coma for three days due to pressure on my brain after suffering a blood clot. I was in the Royal Gwent Hospital but the aneurysm I had couldn’t be clipped. They decided to put a balloon inside my carotid artery to stop blood going to that part of my brain.

I was awake during the operation as they were going through the groin via a catheter.

The surgeon would pump the balloon to seal the blockage in the artery but as he did those last few pumps towards the 30 minute mark I had pain in my head and double vision. They had to abandon the operation as the balloon was very close to the sixth cranial nerve which controls the muscle that enables outward movement of the left eye.

I then had another operation to put platinum coils in my brain to block the blood going to the aneurysm. It was a ticking time bomb but thankfully that worked and both Sarah and I are fine.

We’ve taken up dancing 1950’s style. It’s fabulous. Sarah did ballet when she was younger but I’ve never danced at all.

Sarah’s lost nearly three stone partly to dancing but we’ve also decided to cut out sugar.

We see it as a new lifestyle and we intend to live life to the full. The changes that have occurred as a direct result of it have completely altered my outlook on life, making me happier and more appreciative of everything around me.

I’ve lived in various parts of Newport throughout my life – I was in Caerleon for quite a while before my wife and I moved to Penperlleni. We’ve lived in the city all our lives and we love living in the country.

I was born on July 16, 1960 at St Woolos Hospital. I grew up in Ringland and went to Milton Primary School before going to Hartridge.

I’m the youngest of three with two older sisters. I remember maths being my best subject at O-levels.