A supermarket manager had his entire memory wiped from birth up to the age of 16 after he suffered a brain injury.
Antony Holly suddenly fainted at train station on his commute home to Romford, Essex, after feeling he was suffering from heat stroke.
His family then rushed him to hospital, where doctors said he was suffering from meningitis, sepsis, and a severe sinus infection. He had to have six lumbar punctures to try and identify the infection causing the problem.
The infections lead him to develop encephalitis, or inflammation of the brain that wiped his memory.
The disease had affected him so badly he couldn’t remember his mum, sister, nieces, friends – or even his own name.
Normal daily activities like showering, washing his hair and going to the toilet were a mystery to him as he simply couldn’t recollect how to do them.
Today, he still has no recollection of family holidays, his school teachers, his favourite childhood toys, birthdays or sitting exams before turning 16.
‘For me it has been hard not being able to remember things. People treat you differently,’ Anthony said.
‘You take your memories for granted. Now I don’t have any, it’s about taking life and living it. Have fun and don’t moan and groan about things.’
Anthony Holly’s had his entire memory wiped from birth up to the age of 16 after he suffered a brain injury
Antony Holly couldn’t remember his mum, sister, nieces, friends or even his own name after he collapsed at a train station on his commute home
He still has no recollection of family holidays, his school teachers, his favourite childhood toys, birthdays or sitting exams before turning 16
Collapsing on the commute home
Antony, 22, was at work as a manager at the John Lewis store in London’s Oxford Street on June 16 last year when he began to feel unwell.
It was one of the hottest days of the year and he initially put it down to heatstroke, but standing in one of the store’s chillers didn’t help and he had to go home early.
However during his commute back to his home in Romford, Essex, he collapsed at Liverpool Street Station.
Antony said: ‘Losing your memory is like watching a film of your own life, with you as the main character, but I don’t remember anything. It’s very frustrating.
‘People tell me things I’ve done, and remind me of lovely memories they have of me, but I haven’t a clue what they’re on about.
Normal daily activities like showering, washing his hair and going to the toilet were a mystery to him as he simply couldn’t recollect how to do them
‘On the day I collapsed everyone thought it was a bit strange because it was really unusual for me. I started sweating. I was getting really hot. And I’m usually a very well person.
‘It was one of the hottest days of the year and I thought it was just that.
‘I went and stood in one of the cold chillers to chill out but that didn’t have any effect so I told them I was going to go home a half hour early.
‘I got to Liverpool Street station and when I got there I collapsed.
‘From there everything was a vague picture. They don’t know how I collapsed or how I got to Liverpool Street and I don’t remember a thing.’
Antony had to be resuscitated three times. He had no idea of his name and couldn’t give any family members’ names either. Thankfully his next of kin details were stored on an app on his iPhone.
Antony Holly, 22, at his home in Romford, Essex
He couldn’t remember his own name
His family were called into the Royal London Hospital in Whitechapel, thinking he’d simply collapsed in the high temperatures, but as soon as they arrived they were ushered into a family room and told it was unlikely he would make it.
He was suffering meningitis, sepsis, a severe sinus infection and had to have six lumbar punctures to try and identify the infection causing the problem.
Because of the infections, Antony developed encephalitis, or inflammation of the brain, which severely affected his memory.
Encephalitis is caused by an infection invading the brain or through the immune system attacking the brain in error.
There are 6,000 cases in the UK every year, many of which are fatal. Sufferers can be left permanently disabled.
He was in hospital for a month and couldn’t remember who he was until the second week.
His mum Lorraine, 50, kept asking him if he remembered her and it was only when he’d been in hospital about ten days that he retorted with: ‘You’re my mother, unfortunately!’
Antony’s sister Danielle, 25, has two daughters, Libby, six, and Chloe, one. One of Antony’s greatest upsets was that he couldn’t remember his two beloved nieces.
‘In the hospital, my mum was on my bed and on the phone to my sister and my nieces wanted to say hello and I spoke to them,’ Antony said.
His mum Lorraine, 50, kept asking him if he remembered her and it was only when he’d been in hospital about ten days that he retorted with: ‘You’re my mother, unfortunately!’
‘I started crying because I could recognise the voices but I couldn’t speak and couldn’t place them. It was so upsetting.’
‘I thought I was still at Liverpool Street’
Doctors showed him simple items, like watches, and stethoscopes, and Antony couldn’t tell them what they were.
For days he also still believed he was waiting to catch the train he had been due to get before he collapsed.
He said: ‘At first I kept repeating a message of ‘When’s the train going?’ because I thought I was still waiting for a train.
‘In my mind I thought I was still at Liverpool Street. I kept asking the doctors when we were leaving. I meant the train, but they thought I meant going home.
‘They’d take me to x-ray and tell me I was departing, pretending I was getting a train, so I’d shut up.’
After coming out of immediate danger, the 22-year-old had to learn his entire daily routine again, much of which was left to his mum. His handwriting also went back to that of a seven-year-old.
Antony suffers with Encephalitis leading to the loss of all his childhood memories before the age of 16
Anthony had suffered meningitis, sepsis, a severe sinus infection, which lead to encephalitis
He said: ‘My mum has been such a star. She essentially had to rehabilitate me.
‘It was such a worry for her, me not knowing who she was.
‘In hospital I had to learn to wash myself, wash my hair. I couldn’t dress.
‘My day to day routine was completely wiped, it was just gone. What you normally do in life, the basics in life, they’re just gone.
‘Going to the toilet is a simple thing you learn as a kid, but I didn’t know how. My mum had to show me.’
All his memories were wiped
And his memories of the happy childhood he’d spent with his sister were also a blank.
Antony couldn’t remember any of his school friends, teachers, or anything about growing up and going to Squirrels Heath Junior School and Emerson Park Academy.
‘Me and my sister would always laugh and joke about stuff we’d done as kids.
‘When I was younger my mum would go to the baker’s and buy two iced fingers for us and I’d sneak one out of the bag and take the icing off it and put it back in the bag and tell her they’d given her one without icing.
‘Little things like that are so lovely to remember, but I don’t have them anymore.
‘Growing up, I just can’t remember.
‘I had a special teddy bear called Rattles and it had a rattle inside and it made a funny noise. I went everywhere with him.
‘My mum got it out to show me the stuff I had as a child and I can’t remember any of it.
‘I don’t remember going to school. All my primary and secondary school memories are gone.
‘Looking at photos I can vaguely remember things, but a deep sort of relationship with those people, I can’t. I don’t remember my school friends or the fun we had.
‘The most upsetting thing is losing the fun times and looking back and not remembering amazing school trips and things like that. I know we went on great ones but I just can’t remember them.
‘We used to go to the Isle of Wight every year too and away to Spain on family holidays and they’re gone.
‘It’s like that at work as well. People would have told me last summer that their children are expecting babies and when I went back they’d tell me they’d had their babies and I didn’t even know they were pregnant.
‘For me it’s hard. It seems like I’m stupid or I don’t care, but it’s just that I’ve forgotten.’
Antony was six months through a nine-month secondment to the John Lewis store in Oxford Street as a retail manager when he fell ill.
He has now moved back to the Waitrose branch at Upminster as assistant team manager.
‘People treat you differently’
But he has re-learnt his job so quickly that since coming out of hospital he has already been promoted to assistant team manager at the supermarket’s busy Edgware Road store, where he is due to move shortly.
He said: ‘Work have been absolutely brilliant. They have really helped me get back to normality.
‘They knew there was stuff I might not remember but along the way I picked it up.
‘I had six lumbar punctures which hurt my back. I can’t lift things or do too much heavy work and they supported me with that.
‘I remembered what money was and basic things like that, but the company policies, I just couldn’t remember.
‘I could write, but it would take me a while. It was all wonky, almost like I’d gone back to being six or seven and you need a handwriting pen.
‘I’m just taking things slowly.’
Antony met his partner just after his illness and says being in a relationship has been a huge help.
And he added: ‘I want to raise awareness of Encephalitis. People don’t know about it.
World Encephalitis Day takes place on February 22.
Dr Ava Easton, Chief Executive of the Encephalitis Society, said: ‘One person every minute will be struck down by encephalitis in 2018, irrespective of their age, gender or the country in which they live.
‘This devastating condition has a high death rate while those who survive can be left with an acquired brain injury resulting in epilepsy, fatigue, cognitive difficulties, problems with memory and personality.
‘And yet statistics reveal that eight out of 10 people do not know what encephalitis is – a truly startling figure which we are striving to improve through campaigns such as BrainWalk and World Encephalitis Day on February 22.’