"Fantastic Nurse - Millennium Centre"

Recently I had to have stitches removed from my arm which were needed after a self-inflicted injury.

I had to go to St Helens Walk-in Centre to have this done, as it was the weekend. I was not looking forward to it - being somebody who self-injures, it meant I would have had to show my whole arm to this nurse and I wondered how they would react.

I don't know the name of the person I saw, but he asked me the dreaded question before I rolled my sleeve up "how did you do it?"... i replied "self harm" and he encouraged me to roll my sleeve up.

He clearly picked up on my anxiety and reluctancy to remove the dressing which would reveal yet more scars and the stitched wound. He simply said, in a calm and gentle manner "go on, it's ok" and suddenly, I felt ok. Those few words just let me know that he wasn't going to ridicule me or treat me any differently.

He was gentle in removing the very awkward stitches and was clear in giving me information about aftercare (ie no perfumed products on it for at least 3 days etc).

This nurse could not have done a better job - not just at removing the stitches, but at making me feel at ease and not making me feel ashamed or guilty. There are nurses out there who could take a leaf out of his book and understand a little more about self harm. In this instance, I was treated like a respected and valued human being - not some useless waste of space who didn't deserve the time of day because I'd hurt myself.

So whoever he was he was fantastic, and I'll make sure I send a letter to the Millennium Centre to pass on my thank you!