"We were not very long into the war,
only a few days into the war. We were given NAPS tablets,
and these were nerve agent pre-treatment set tablets, as a
prevention against nerve agents. The actual component is pyridostigmine
bromide but they are affectionately, inverted commas, known as
NAPS tablets. Within days or within hours in actual fact of
first taking them I became ill. I was walking back from the
cook house with a colleague one day and I just felt so ill -
I was disorientated and dizzy, I just felt as I just was not
walking along. The doctor assumed at that time the it was
because I was dehydrated. Nevertheless he said don't take the
next lot of the NAPS tablets and drink plenty of water which
I did.
I still get the loss of balance, the
headaches and by headaches I don't mean a headache where
you take a couple of Anadine and they disappear. We're talking
about if you get a headache, it can be there one day or it can
be there three days later. Muscle fatigue, tremendous muscle
fatigue, joint pains, muscle pains, memory loss. The memory
loss is terrible. Bearing in mind that I've in charge of
accident and emergency departments, dealing with emergency
situations, numerous amount of drugs and drug calculations
and I found now that I can't work out the simplest,
simplest things.
We have formed an organisation which is a National
Gulf Veterans and Families Association. We have a Motto, and our motto
is "We Serve In Faith", which all of us did. And we started
the Association becuase we knew at that time that the few of us were just
the tip of the iceberg and we've proved that because since the Association
started some twelve months ago, the membership has increased and increased
and I think possibly by now we must be up to nearly a thousand members.
Our aim is to give support and help to the families as well as veterans.
There are more younger veterans than our age
group who want to start families and are frightened of starting
families. This is the legacy that we are leaving. Who knows that
whether in eighteen or twenty years time, are these children, or are
their children going to be effected. Until the research is done we
will never know."
Chris Llyod,
Major (Queen Alexander Nursing Corp.)
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