I bought ice cream for my precious children, sat down with them on

THE children shrieked with delight as their dad jumped on the motorbike ride and put his money in the slot.

It took off like a rocket, flinging him up and down as lights flashed and music blared.

Mick Scott, 34, didn't care that he looked a clown. And he didn't care about beating the arcade machine.

The only prize he wanted was to hear his children's laughter.

And Adam, nine, and Stacey, eight, rewarded him a million times over as they enjoyed a weekend break at Whitby earlier this year.

But on the last day Mick had to steel himself for the worst task of his life. He had taken the children on holiday to tell them he was dying.

His news was all the more painful to deliver because Mick, a single parent, is blind.

Two years ago he became the first blind father in Europe to win custody of his children after an acrimonious split from his wife, June.

He agonised over whether or not to tell them of his illness, but felt he owed it to them to be as honest as possible.

He says: "I bought the children an ice cream, sat them down on the rocks on the beach and told them as calmly as I could that I wasn't going to live to be very old.

"They had no idea I had something so awful to say. They both burst out in tears straight away and asked me if I was going to die tomorrow. I hugged them and held back my own tears even though I really wanted to sob my heart out with them.

"I told them not to worry - that it wouldn't be tomorrow or the next day. But the truth is I don't know how long I have left. I'm just trying to cram as much as I can into our lives before I go."

It was only when they returned to their hotel that Mick broke down in private in his room.

When he won his historic court case in 1996 Mick had dreamed of a bright new future for his family. But just eight weeks after the victory he suffered two heart attacks - one at home and a bigger one in hospital 12 hours later.

Tests revealed that two of his main arteries are blocked due to ischaemia, a disease that restricts the blood supply and is cutting off his heart.

When the third artery narrows - and there is no telling when that will be - his only hope will be a triple by-pass. Only one in five patients with his condition, which is linked to diabetes, survives the operation.

Mick says: "My own GP said it's a time bomb waiting to go off. I could die next week or next year - nobody knows. The only definite thing I've been told is that I'll be very lucky to see my 40th birthday in six years' time.

"I'm really hoping I'll live long enough to see the kids finish school, but, whatever happens, I'm not going to sit around feeling sorry for myself. I've just got to grit my teeth and get on with it for all our sakes."

The family's terraced home near Wakefield, West Yorkshire, is testament to his bravery. Apart from Dusty the guide dog, there is no clue that Mick is blind. The children's bedrooms are decorated with Teletubbies and Barbie wallpaper, their pictures hang on the kitchen walls and the pink living room shines like a new pin. "I often admire the wallpaper," laughs Mick. "It's a lovely shade."

Mick is constantly cracking jokes in his broad Yorkshire accent, and is the first to poke fun at himself. The children sometimes take advantage of his blindness - and his good nature - by taking extra biscuits from the tin, or claiming their bedrooms are tidy when they are not.

Adam's favourite trick is to run the taps and pretend he's had a wash. "I've sussed that one," says Mick. "I feel the soap and ask him how come it's dry."

At this moment Adam jumps on his dad's knee, puts his arms round his neck and says: "I love me Dad!"

Stacey has to think for a minute when asked what is the best thing about him. She screws up her big blue eyes then declares triumphantly: "Everything."

Before he took the children on single-handedly, Mick could scarcely boil an egg, and was worried about being left alone with two lively youngsters. Now he can do almost everything.

He even took the children to Butlins at Skegness in the summer, and insisted on going on the Waltzers with them.

Unfortunately he stepped on to the platform when the ride was in full swing, fell to the ground and broke a rib. "I picked myself up, got into the seat and had my ride," he says. "I thought, 'Sod it, I've paid so I might as well go on'."

It is that spirit which helped Mick stay sane through the worst years of his life... when his eyesight and his marriage were failing.

His health problems started as a child when he was diagnosed as diabetic at just 18 months. He had a condition known as diabetic retinopathy, which causes bleeding of the retina and blindness. But his sight didn't actually start to deteriorate until he was in his 20s. Then when he was 25 and working as a roofer his right eye suddenly failed.

"I was up on a roof when I got a fly in my left eye," he recalls. "I rubbed it and suddenly realised I couldn't see anything out of my right eye. It was a terrible shock, but I took the attitude that I had another eye, so it wasn't too serious."

He had been married to wife June for two years, and Adam was a tiny baby. But the marriage was already in crisis. "We were both to blame," he says. "June couldn't cope with my failing eyesight and I was very argumentative because I was struggling to come to terms with it myself."

June became pregnant with Stacey, and Mick prayed that his left eye would hold out at least until the birth. It wasn't to be.

"I was reading a newspaper one day when suddenly it went 'bang'," says Mick, snapping his fingers in the air. "My left eye had haemorrhaged and everything just went dark. It's been dark ever since."

Mick had microsurgery in a bid to save his retina but it failed and he was registered blind in March 1990. Stacey was born two months later.

"It should have been one of the happiest days of my life but it turned out to be the worst," he says. "I couldn't even hold Stacey on the first day because I was so distraught. I was a complete mess, shaking and crying.

"On the second day I took her in my arms and I could feel all this warm skin but couldn't see her face. It cut me up really badly."

That day also signalled the beginning of the end of his marriage. Mick claims his wife was ashamed to walk down the street with him holding his white stick. He stuck it out because he couldn't bear to leave the children, but the marriage eventually ended when Stacey was four and Adam six. Mick moved in with his parents, Beryl, 57, and Arnie, 59, in January 1995. He claims his wife moved another man into their home the very next day. "The children weren't happy," says Mick. "I was only down the road and Adam asked if he could come and live with me a few months later because he wasn't getting on with his mum.

"I gave him my bed and slept on the floor. I got a residency order for him and then Stacey started asking if she could live with me too. My solicitor said I had no chance of getting full custody, but I decided to fight because I had nothing to lose and absolutely everything to gain."

He began his legal bid in early 1996. The children's statements to welfare officers won Mick joint residency, which meant he shared custody with his wife.

He says the agreement never worked because his ex-wife frequently failed to keep appointments. "I told the lawyers I wanted to go for full custody," he says. "They laughed at me. No blind man had ever won a case before and the odds were stacked against me."

But Mick's devotion persuaded social workers he was more than capable of looking after his children. And in July 1996 a judge at Pontefract County Court awarded him full custody.

His ex-wife, a care worker, now has no contact with the children. Mick has had one relationship since, with a blind woman. The two are now "just good friends".

He is more than happy bringing up Adam and Stacey alone. His parents have agreed to step in when he becomes too ill to care for them. "I would still have gone for custody if I'd known what I know now about my health," says Mick. "I may be blind but I am just like any other dad who is devoted to his kids.

"They are the best thing in the world and I couldn't live without them. I often feel their faces when they are asleep and I picture them when they talk to me.

"They are both absolutely beautiful, and every day with them is a gift."

Copyright 1998 MGN LTD
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