I must confess, when I was told I would have to go to an A&E as I twisted and twirled on my bed in pain — I was contemplating riding it out. I had heard, and written, stories about the wait times people had to face before being seen in hospitals. So, safe to say, I was very apprehensive about what was going to happen. But nothing could have prepared me for what I saw when I was actually there.

This is the stuff we dread, and this is the stuff that we don’t expect — at least I certainly did not when I started my day. I had been having stomach aches as the night fell for around 2 days consecutively at this point. I didn’t think too much of it.

I had been working out at my gym when the pain came back. I knew something didn’t feel right, so I cut my gym-session short and decided to head home. As I was going home, however, it started to get worse. I tried a hot shower, hoping the pain would subside but it didn’t work. When it became so bad I felt hard to move, I thought it best to seek help.

I rang 111, the NHS Wales Helpline, close to midnight at 11:12pm. I don’t remember the wait being long, however, and was soon able to speak to a professional. To my horror, the person on the other end informed me that a medical professional would soon be calling me, but it could take almost two hours for them to get back to me. Fortunately, I heard back at 11:52pm, and was told to head to a hospital. Never miss a Swansea story by signing up to our newsletter here

I live alone, my family is across continents, and most of my friends live at least an hour away. So I was prepared to spend the night alone. However, when I got to Morriston Hospital's A&E, at around 12.30am (the next day now), I realised exactly how wrong I was. I wasn’t alone, there were many people waiting to be seen just like me with the only difference being — some were worse than me.

There was a solemn silence, however, punctuated only by the buzzing noise coming from the vending machines. Everyone in the A&E had a worried look on their faces, understandably. They all had their aches, their pains, and their own long wait. One of the only things breaking the silence, and the anxious, monotonous look on the........

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