24 Hours in A&E

35-year-old Sarah has had a blistering headache for the past four days. She’s finally come in to A&E worried that a recurring brain tumour she first had as a teenager has returned. “I've always been told it won't come back and then it has three times,” she says. “My parents put on a brave face. I can see how distraught they were. As a parent, when something goes wrong all you want to do is put yourself in their shoes and take it away from them. I guess as parents they felt very helpless. “I sort of made a vow to myself then that I would do as much as I could to never let them know how I was feeling,” continues Sarah. “I thought if there was something I could do for them it would be to put on a brave face, put on a smile and just not ever let them see how upset or how scared or how worried I was.” Sarah’s concerns are even more heightened now that she has a young son of her own. He’s being looked after by her dad – who has never changed a nappy before – while she’s in A&E. “Now that I am a mum, the thought of going through it again whilst I have Elliot is a hundred times more scary.” 47-year-old mum Helen has come in with her 10-month-old son James who has been vomiting since the morning. With two older boys already, Helen decided to have another child and James was conceived after three courses of IVF. The pregnancy was difficult and James was born prematurely with a hole in his heart and one kidney and spent his first thirteen weeks in hospital. So Helen is worried that it could be something more serious than a stomach bug. “With that history you can imagine I would be very protective,” says Helen. “There was absolutely no way that I was taking any chances with him.” And Wayne, a 28-year-old glazer, has been stabbed twice in the leg as he tried to stop someone stealing his girlfriend’s mobile phone outside a pub. His mum Joan reflects on her son’s wayward youth and how he has turned his life around for the better. “It doesn’t matter what they’ve done and what you’ve gone through, you’re always going to be protective about them, “ says Joan. “And here’s something happening that you have absolutely no control over.”