I’ve never really given much thought to my thumbs. I always think of them as the ‘Billy No Mates’ of the hand. Rarely adorned with a ring and at most painted to match the fingers. Halfway down the hand on their own whilst index, middle and ring finger, and the delightfully named ‘pinkie’, all share the limelight. Even the name is dull. ‘Thumb’ just one consonant away from ‘thump’.

The reason I mention thumbs is that one Sunday evening recently I found myself in the NHS Walk In Centre in Exeter. I’d been working in the garden that week, without gloves as usual, and had picked up a few thorns. Not big ones just those tiny little hair like creatures that don’t pierce the skin too far but almost sit on the surface. Well I could see a small dot on the pad of my thumb and started ‘worrying’ it eventually taking a needle to it and rooting around. Big mistake. The following day my thumb was twice the size so that I could barely bend it, scarlet and throbbing like a Tom ‘n Jerry thumb that’s been hit by a mallet! I was on duty with the Exeter Port Authority on board the Harbour Master’s boat the Pride of Exeter and of course showed the fellas my injury, which received no sympathy at all.  It was regatta day for the yacht club and the amateur rowers and our job was to be a reassuring presence and make sure no errant water sport fiends went tearing through the courses exceeding the regulatory 10 knots. It was my turn to helm the boat. I assumed my position and reached down with my right hand for what I would have called the gear stick, better known to all ‘boaties’ as the throttle, in order to depress the button on the side of the shift and start moving forward. It required my thumb and I nearly shot through the roof of the cabin. Naturally I soldiered on without a word of complaint. Well only from the rest of the team when I went into reverse by mistake just as they’d got their first cuppas of the day. You’d think I’d covered them with boiling oil to hear the yelps. It wasn’t until I got home that I realized the full value of a thumb and what I couldn’t do.

1. Press the buttons on the phone
2. Unlock my front door
3. Unzip my trousers and unbutton my shirt
4. Clean my glasses
5. Attend to all manner of personal actions

and tragically peel veg, make tea and wash up!!!!

Fortunately my husband, exhausted from a 100-mile yomp in the Brecon Beacons was on hand with two perfectly functioning thumbs to step in.

The following day I was due to officially open the new premises of the British Academy of Floral Art at Doddiscombesleigh. The weather was foul but prosecco flowed, the air was heavy with sweet smelling floral extravaganzas, which filled the studios, and a beautiful flower bower adorned the entrance where I stood to perform my official duty. A ribbon of flowers was strung across in front of me and I was handed the scissors. It was then that I realized what else you cant do without a functioning thumb.

6. Use scissors

Hence that night the Walk in Centre. What a wonderful service that is. Whilst I was told the waiting time at A&E that evening was 5 hours I was in and out in 45 minutes having been reassured that I didn’t have sepsis and my finger dressed.

So once again ‘thumbs up’ to the NHS!

Read all about it in the Western Morning News