Sudden True-Life
My partner said I could walk away, but he’s stuck with me forever!
Claire Piercy, 46, from Dalton
Following the estate agent around the house, I was really excited.
Having been with my partner Martyn, 49, for seven years, in 2015, we were buying a house together.
We’d always known of each other but had never been single at the same time.
Meeting by chance in 2008, it became clear we wanted the same things in life – to settle down and have a family.
And by August 2015 we’d found the perfect property for us – I couldn’t wait for us to move in, in the autumn.
When I met Martyn back in 2008, he was a bit of an action man, he played cricket at a high level and he enjoyed football.
Working as a foreman, he was physically fit, too.
At the time, I was working in London and living in Yorkshire, meaning I spent the majority of time working from home and commuting to the city every couple of weeks.
Sat at my desk on 25 August 2015, it was one of the rare occasions I was in the office.
So, when my sister-in-law Helen called, it wasn’t too much of a surprise.
Only she wasn’t ringing for some general chit chat.
‘You need to come home Claire,’ she said, crying down the phone. ‘It’s Martyn – he’s had a really serious accident at work.’
In complete shock, I didn’t know what to think.
Working on a building site, there is always an element of risk.
With Martyn going up and down from roofs and scaffolding, there was always a chance of injury.
I didn’t know exactly what was wrong with Martyn or what had happened to him yet, but I knew it was serious and that I had to get back home.
Talking to my colleagues it was all a bit of a blur. I didn’t know what to do – I didn’t know what happened or the state he was in.
Work were amazing, kindly paying for me to get back home.
On the train, I pulled out my laptop and carried on working – I didn’t know what else to do and I needed a distraction.
Pulling into Leeds station, my mum Lynn, 76, dad Stuart, 81, and Helen’s husband Phil were there waiting for me.
As I approached, I noticed they were crying.
‘Claire, this is really serious,’ they sobbed.
And the truth was far worse than I could have ever anticipated.
It turned out, a massive metal lintel – a type of beam – had fallen on Martyn’s back, breaking his nose, neck and back.
In fact, his spinal cord had been completely crushed by the beam.
Arriving at Leeds General Infirmary, he’d been rushed in for eme
