Andrew Pattinson and his partner Lesa Boland run Funky Gums, makers of made-to-measure gum shields for use in sport, but recently seen in Robbie William’s launch video for his new album, The Heavy Entertainment Show

Robbie, sporting a red gumshield with the initials HES, can be seen on Funky Gums’ Twitter page – although he’s yet to respond to Andrew’s tweet.

In March 2015 Andrew suddenly became unwell, suffering dozens of mini-strokes, which over the course of a three-week period took away his arm function and affected his speech and memory.

It wasn’t until a month later that he was diagnosed at a specialist neurology unit in Liverpool with a rare genetic condition called moyamoya, caused by a narrowing of the carotid artery.

He underwent 10 hours of surgery to replace the damaged artery in his neck with one from his leg. Since then Andrew, 40, has ticked off a fair few things from a bucket list he came up with during two months in hospital, and has been invited to talk to trainee medics about his condition.

Andrew and Lesa live in Whernside with their daughters Poppy, seven, and Lucy, 14.

He said: "We set up Cumbria Denture Clinic in 2008. Some of the machinery in here is from the workshop that was here before, like the lathe. We didn’t have much when we first set up, but now we’re going to expand into the next room.

"I played the clarinet first but I’ve been playing the saxophone for about nine years. I just play it for myself. I can’t play anything else now because since my illness my right arm won’t move fast, although my fingers and hand are fine. That’s the test they do to see if you’ve got brain damage. With the sax I just pick it up and I can play it.

"We set up Funky Gums in 2012. At first we were only making a few a year, but now we’re making loads. We trim all the mouthguards by hand on our workbench. When I lost the use of my arm I was still trying to work, but I couldn’t.

"I was in hospital for nearly two months. During that time I couldn’t think properly. I was blank. I couldn’t keep anything in my head for more than a few minutes. It was difficult. When I started to recover I began to think about all the things that I wanted to do. Like a bucket list. I wanted a dog for so long. When I came out of hospital I got him even before I went home. He’s a working cocker spaniel and his name’s Ziggy.

"One of the other things on my bucket list was to get fit. I did Gelt Gladiator, Born Survivor, Tough Mudder and the Cumbrian 4 Fell Challenge for Macmillan Cancer Support. I had started a mountain leader course, but hadn’t completed it. My goal was to come out of hospital and get back on to it. One of the surgeons advised me not to do anything, but another said I could do what I wanted. I haven’t had a problem since and I’m fitter than I was.

"We make the gum shields on a machine. It’s a pressure former. It pushes the material down on to the mould. I’m a registered clinical dental technician. I graduated from the Royal College of Surgeons in London in 2011, but I also really love quantum physics. I’ve been doing Lesa’s head in about what time is: the future, the present, the past. There is no now. There’s only future and past. The present is already gone.

"I had so many strokes that I think there’s a part of my brain that switched off. It wasn’t frightening but it was just like it wasn’t there anymore. That part of my brain that used to make my arm lift up has died and there’s another part of my brain that does that now. There’s a lot of damage in my brain but I feel quite normal. I used to have bad social anxiety. I couldn’t be in a room with more than a couple of people because I’d feel the need to run out. One of the good things about having these strokes is that it’s cured me of that."

* This interview first appeared in Carlisle Living