'The day I went blind and thought my life had ended'

After suffering a crippling headache at work, Stephen Ricketts somehow managed to drive home but woke up the next morning totally blind.

He thought his life had ended, turned to alcohol, told his wife to leave him and was on the verge of suicide.

Mr Ricketts could not do anything for himself and would put peaches on toast, mistakenly thinking they were beans.

But now, aged 53, he has founded a bowls club for the visually impaired and wants to help others.

As an exhibition by photographer Ray Hobbs focuses on how the Men's Sheds charity has helped people who are lonely and isolated, Mr Ricketts shares his story.

Going blind was sudden, unexpected and horrific. It left me feeling totally alone and breaking down in tears constantly.

At the time, I had a job I had done for 33 years and loved.

I was a commercial tyre fitter, based in Swansea and travelling out to the countryside, to farms, businesses, Joe public.

But there was this one moment in 2014, during a job in Newport, when I just had this severe headache.

It was the king of headaches and felt like someone was taking six inch nails, hammering them in to my head and then pulling them out.

How I finished that job I will never know but I managed to and drove the van back to Llanelli.

The next morning, I woke up totally blind.

I had age-related macular degeneration (AMD), an eye condition which affects the central part of your retina that is responsible for helping you see clearly.

There are a number of possible causes and two types where it develops over different time periods - I had symptoms of both.

I had no idea I had something so severe and just thought headaches I had been experiencing were severe migraines.

The most frightening part was going to the hospital and the surgeon touching me and I couldn't see it.

It was horrific, I had to learn to wash, cook, shave, even walk the streets.

It was like being reborn, I had to rely on others but felt like I was alone.

I lost my licence, career and told my wife to leave me and find a guy who's complete as I wasn't complete.

It put me in a seriously dark place, I hit alcohol and just felt like I had been picked up and pushed in a corner like the naughty boy at school and everyone needed lots of patience with me.

I wasn't mixing with the community, I was in a bubble and couldn't find a way of bursting it.

Every day I would cry half a dozen times because I couldn't see the spoon to stir my tea, or I was spilling the water for it.

I was opening tins of soup thinking it was custard and pouring it over my pie.

And I was cooking what I thought were beans to put on my toast but it would be peaches - and they do not smell nice when you put them on the hob, I found that out.

My aim in life was gone, I couldn't work and couldn't communicate. But I was still a human being.

It came to a head one day when my father-in-law came over and took me for a walk.

He put his hand on my shoulder and said "what do you want?". I said "help" and burst into tears.

That's when I got off the alcohol and he started to take me out and I realised I couldn't just sit alone in the house forever.

I went to a Men's Shed workshop, expecting it to just be sawdust, but there were two men sat on a leather settee eating Bourbons and chatting.

If it wasn't for that one day, finding out there were other people I could talk to, the suicidal side, I would have done it. I was in such a deep and dark place.

Then I offered to help paint the Men's Shed in Llanelli - I was up so close to the wall, it was splashed all over my face.

Everyone laughed but I didn't care, I was starting to bond with people and feel part of something.

There were carpenters there who I learnt how to do dovetail joints from and I learned how to French polish, which meant doors started opening.

I now have a workshop in my garage and have made a table, garden ornaments and a house sign for my neighbours among other things.

As I learned to cope with my situation, I set up Llanelli Visually Impaired Bowls Club as I realised there must be others like me, suffering from depression.

Last year we played all over Wales and have got sponsorship as well as raising about £1,800 a year for travel costs.

We are currently fundraising after being invited to play in a major tournament in Weston-Super-Mare.

There are now 16 on the team, with two totally blind and nobody having more than 40% vision.

For 15 weeks, I was totally blind but after operations and injections, I regained 20% of my sight.

Luckily, despite asking her to leave me, my wife, Tracey, stayed with me and after needing help, I now want to help people myself.

I went through depression, alcohol, suicidal thoughts. You think your life has ended, but it hasn't.