I saw a status on my memories on Facebook about something that happened last year while I was in hospital. A girl had told my friend that she’d overdosed and when she asked her out of concern what she’d taken, she said she had overdosed on 4 paracetamol. We all laughed about it and took the piss behind her back. You might not think taking 4 paracetamol is that bad but to her it was probably a big deal.

There’s been other times when we’ve took the piss out of people whilst being in hospital and looking back I feel quite ashamed. There was an Asian woman who barely spoke English who someone had encouraged one of the other patients to kick her. We all laughed at the time but it must’ve been really scary for her. She probably had no idea what was going on.

I know hospitals are boring and when you make friends you feel like you can do anything in there but sometimes you need to check yourself and think ‘how would I like it if someone did this to me?’

I don’t condone bullying, especially considering that I was bullied myself at school. You need to remember that everyone (including yourself) is ill and it’s a horrible place to be at the best of times. It must be even worse if you feel people are out to get you.