I'm staying away from home at present, in a rather nice Travelodge in Marston Moretaine, Bedfordshire. But that's not the real reason for this post.

The point is that the guy on reception, Neville, has had quite a life.

I wanted to send a fax, but you know how it is. You get chatting. Turns out he was a commercial airline pilot. But then he was diagnosed with lung cancel. If there could be a good side it is the fact that it hadn't spread anywhere. But it had affected both lungs.

So five years ago he had to have both lungs removed and spent 11 months on artificial support. Luckily, for him, a donor became available and he had a complete lung replacement operation.

Now the only down side is that the anti-rejection medicine he takes has affected his eyesight. But using glasses corrects this.

The only other problem is that he is not allowed to fly. Not because he is unfit, he regularly does marathons and half marathons. Not because of his eyesight, because there are other pilots with similar eye conditions.

No, the reason he isn't allowed to fly is because he takes a 'drug'; the effects of which are unknown.

So it's OK for a one armed pilot, with bad eyesight and type 1 diabetes to fly. But not him. Surely this is discrimination!

Tags: neville