My already blonde hair had turned white from the blazing sun and my freckles dominated my usually pale cheeks, while my blonde eyebrows look nearly non-existent. I looked malnourished as a child, but this stemmed from being a fussy eater, but a fussy eater with a big appetite. My nan, dad and I were one week into our two-week holiday in Kos, a small Greek Island near the coast of Turkey and every day has consisted of French fries for lunch smothered in ketchup and thick cut chips for dinner also smothered in ketchup. This was my very first holiday and it included many blisters on my hands from the monkey bars, MANY special kids' cocktails, and my England football shirt had already been worn twice. This was the first time experiencing high temperatures as my home was in England, where summers are commonly bleak and wet and after the first day, I burned extremely bad, which resulted in my Nan smothering my sore and blistered skin with her Avon moisturiser, a smell so distinct to me, that it always reminds me of her when I still smell it.
My nan, Cristina, had sun kissed skin which came from the three abroad holidays she would have in a single year and my dads' skin was also very used to the sun, which made the forgetting of reapplying my suncream plausible. Other than the blistery sunburn, this week had been amazing so far. I was a very chatty child which made making friends extremely easy.
Every day consisted of being covered head to toe with suncream, spending hours in the swimming pool, ordering special kids' cocktails from the bar, eating French fries and singing and dancing in the evening on stage at the nighttime entertainment. I was a very outgoing child; fearless and not shy. I was always the first to say hello and would chat for eternity. As a child, I had an extremely close bond with my nan and my dad and always wished I could see them more than I did back in England.
My dad, Steve, still lived with my nan then, although having a five-year-old child, he was only twenty-five himself and my nan was also in her mid-forties. My dad had yet to have another relationship after splitting up with Mandy, my mum, and at this time of my life, my nan had been through three divorces. My dad was my nan's youngest child, and they always had a close mother-son relationship. She would do anything for him, but this did negatively impact his independence. He was born with slight brain damage due to his umbilical cord being caught around his neck causing a lack of oxygen to his brain during his birth, and this had significantly impacted his life. He was a hyperactive naughty child, that would jump on random cars in the street, and he was in and out of schools. This caused my nan to be overprotective of him. Deep down she knew that there was something more to his lone ADHD diagnosis but continued to outwardly deny. I was like my dad in that I had inherited his hyperactivity, but what differed is I would release energy by talking a lot. I was commonly known as the child that once started talking, never stopped.
When we flew back from Kos, it was nighttime and to top off my first holiday, I will never forget seeing England - my home, from the night sky. However, after two weeks in mid thirty degrees temperatures, the cold air that hit my skin as soon as the plane doors opened, was painful.
I reunited with my mum, and her partner Shaun after two blissful weeks on holiday, and I do not remember feeling happy to see them or being sad that I was departing from my dad and nan. All I could focus on was how cold I was and the shivering that consumed me. I remember my mum calling my dad because she was concerned that I could not stop shivering and the solution was to put me in the shower. I stand freezing in the shower room which felt like an eternity, waiting for my mum to put the shower on. I am convinced it helped, because I have no further memory.