To set the scene, it was a Friday evening at 7pm, I had the weekend off and was thinking about all the things 26-year-old me was going to be doing that weekend.
My friend's wedding was on the Saturday and Cheltenham Races were on the Sunday, which I was going to - not so much for the racing, but because I knew of another certain young farmer who was going that I was trying to ‘make an impression on'.
In a split second, my weekend plans changed completely.
My left hand was pulled into some moving machinery, resulting in a crush injury to my hand. I didn't realise at the time, but the prognosis was a crushed carpel tunnel and a broken radius close to my wrist.
After pulling my own hand out and seeing for myself the extent of my injury, shock then set in. From then, it was a blur of first responders, paramedics and a shot of morphine, then I finally found myself in the specialist hand unit in Derby Hospital.
After five hours of surgery, I woke up to find out that I had my ring finger and my little finger on my left hand fully amputated and the full length of my forearm cut open to relieve swelling and pressure to allow blood flow back to my hand to save what was left.
My arm was completely bandaged up. I couldn't see what it looked like and I was anxious not knowing how it was going to affect what I could and couldn't do. The accident impacted my mental health, as well as my physical health.
Nineteen years on, I want to spread the message to anyone working in agriculture that it is a rewarding job, but a dangerous one that we all get complacent with from time to time.
Everyday we work under pressure with machinery and livestock, but if we all ‘take five to stay alive' - the NFU's new farm safety campaign, in support of Yellow Wellies' Farm Safety Week - to pause and think about the job in front of us to make it safer, we could stop a horrible accident from happening.
Trust me, it is better to be late to the party and to be able to do the things you have planned than to find yourself in a hospital bed not knowing what your future holds.
I am one of the lucky ones. My hand has recovered so that I am able to continue doing the job I love on-farm, and I now make sure to take five before doing any task.
And the young farmer I was going to meet at Cheltenham, we married three years later.
