Jellyfish

Ken was stung by a jellyfish and this is what his arm looks like nine days later.

When you get stung it feels like a massive electric shock and that is quite scary if you are far away into the sea, which he was. The whole of his arm went very red. We went to the beach nurse who put some cream on it. (He continued with the cream for two days). After a few hours it stopped hurting, but the redness persisted, and these marks, where the tentacles wrapped around his arm, remain.

When I was a kid we used to get stung all the time, it was just part of going swimming but it has not happened to me for years and years. Destructive human activity driven by selfishness and greed has brought havoc to the whole the planet, including the seas, and there are not as many jellyfish as there used to be. I remember swimming with jellyfish all around me - when you have a passion for the sea and swimming nothing will deter you - but now I have not seen one for years.

The main issue is that it could dent your confidence and put you off swimming so you have to try hard not to think about it and continue regardless.

This is where it happened. Apparently quite a few people have been stung in the last few days.