Leyton John sat in his new flat facing a completely different life ahead of him. Having had a long career as a stand-up comedian, an actor and a teacher, his days of entertaining people were seemingly over after he was diagnosed with the lifelong condition of multiple sclerosis.
He knew his health was deteriorating after he first started to limp, then began walking with a cane, which turned into a crutch and then a walker, before one day he simply collapsed. He was rushed into hospital where he remained after being diagnosed with the condition that affects the brain and nerves. It confined him to a wheelchair.
He explained how he was hospitalised for six months at Singleton Hospital, before he was moved to rehabilitation at Bonymaen House for seven months, then taken to supported living in Llansamlet, something that, as a fiercely independent man, he was not prepared to see out long term, deciding to find a flat in Sketty, Swansea, and refusing the help of carers. You can get more Swansea news and other story updates straight to your inbox by subscribing to our newsletters here.
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The 56-year-old explained: "I'm in a wheelchair, I can't walk anymore. That was an overnight thing. I was caring for my father at the time, then I collapsed, I was taken to hospital where I was in a hospital bed for three and a half weeks, and they told me you're never going to walk again, you're never going to stand again. It was very much an overnight thing.
"I had really given up. I honestly felt life wasn't worth living. It was absolutely miserable. I just thought I was not prepared to live like it. I wasn't going to sit in my chair staring at the wall waiting for death to come. I was not prepared to accept other people's opinions. I was told 'you'd be dead in two months' if I left care. I was told I was going to constantly have to have care and two people hoist you out of bed in the morning and two people to put you into bed that night but I wasn't prepared to live like that."
Leyton, originally from Loughor, began to face life alone, determined to live without 24-hour care and assistance. Then, one day, something was to happen that would give him a completely new lease of life.
He said: "I refused carers, and then the local area co-ordinator said she had a bookcase and a bedside cabinet if I would like it, which I accepted. She brought it round with her sister-in-law, Esta Fuge, and her sister-in-law commented that I had a lot of interesting books. I told her that I used to be a performer and that I used to be a teacher so it was left over from those days. She said: 'Oh, I'm a performer'. I asked what she did and she said: 'I work in the circus'.
"We chatted for a bit and she said: 'Next time I'm in Swansea maybe I could give you a ring and we'll meet up. You never know, maybe one day we'll work together'. I thought she was just being polite, as I thought: 'What could I do in the circus?' Maybe six weeks afterwards she phoned me and said, 'We've got an Arts Council grant', and I said, 'what for?'. And she said, 'Your show'. I asked, 'What show' and she said, 'The things you were telling me about, your life.' I said, 'I don't think I'm well enough to do a show', and she said, 'If you're not fit enough to rehearse, we won't rehearse, and if you're not fit enough to do the show, we won't do the show'."
He decided it was too good an offer to refuse, and began working with NoFit State circus, which recently performed at Swansea's recreational ground in a show entitled Smile - based on Mr John's personal life story. It shows his journey from receiving 24 hour bed care to now flying through the air in his wheelchair and cracking jokes.
He said: "I thought it was an unbelievable offer that I couldn't turn down. About a year ago we did a tour of south Wales art venues doing outdoor performance with articulture. From that I was invited to take part in circus village in Cowbridge last year, then I performed in the circus. The irony is, when I left care, the last words they said to me was the last person who left here was dead in two months.
"Six months later I was in the big top flying. It's more of a verbal clown act, contemporary clowning has changed now, it's not the red nose and custard pies anymore, it's more of a comedy-based thing where physical comedy is involved. I rely heavily on verbal comedy. The show I do now does have physical comedy in it and I do fly in it. It's about my time in care and I have an incompetent carer who undresses me and I fall out of the chair, and it's a balancing act - he catches me as I fall, we do play on that. I rely very heavily on verbal skills being in a wheelchair."
He admitted that his condition posed some difficulties, but that he had been able to achieve amazing things on stage that he was unable to do in real life - describing it as 'Dr Showbusiness'.
He said: Multi-tasking is a big issue and memory is a huge issue. Learning lines can feel like I have a book to learn, whereas a friend of mine came to see me and said, 'It's lucky you didn't have many lines to learn', where it felt like a monumental task for me personally. I didn't think I'd learn them. I would spend 10 hours learning five lines, then get up in the morning thinking I have to learn them again.
"The wheelchair does a lot of work for me, it is very graceful gliding around the stage in figures of eight. Being part of the circus has saved my life, and I don't think that's an exaggeration.
"And it's been a little bit miraculous because about two or three months ago when I was transferring from the bed to the chair, I slipped off my chair onto the floor, and I ended up in hospital for two weeks. When I was in the circus, I was going down the ramp and fell out of the chair onto concrete head first. I thought my circus days were over, but the circus people lifted me up and put me in the chair and the next morning I went on stage and performed. I didn't even have an ambulance or have to be checked over. I wasn't even in pain the next day.
"It amazes me really, I call it Dr Showbusiness. It's a bit of a miracle thing what I'm able to do on stage and what I can't do off stage. Its sheer willpower."
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