AMAN who suffered brain damage when he fell off a roof says he’s a changed person who now craves curry and even likes cricket.

Des Hannon, 69, of Rutland Avenue, Southend, previously loathed the sound of leather on willow and exotic food, but that has all changed since he recovered from terrible injuries.

Mr Hannon was putting a roof on a property in Ferry Road, Hullbridge, in April 2013, when he fell off and suffered injuries which kept him at hospitals and other rehabilitation units for five months.

Now recovered, Mr Hannon believes his fall turned him into “a more interesting person”.

He said: “The strange thing is I love things I used to hate, like onions, cheese, beetroot and curry. I love cricket now, which I used not to like. I think I must have been a boring git before the accident.”

Mr Hannon, who has retired from the building trade, has also developed a skill for writing poetry and has started to self-publish some of his work.

He said: “I like to write poetry of all sorts. But I like comedy. I like making people laugh. I like to write poems about Southend, too. I reckon it’s a wonderful town. I think we are really lucky to live here.

“I donated one of the poems, about living in a cardboard box, to the YMCA for a campaign they were doing.”

At one point, doctors feared he might not recover, but he proved them wrong, although he still has difficulty walking.

He said: “I was working on a bungalow, taking the roof off and turning it into a house.

“I fell through where the staircase was going to go, right through the roof to the ground floor and landed on my head.

“I’ve been left deaf in my left ear, partially-sighted in my left eye and one side of my face looks like I’ve had a stroke. I also broke my pelvis. I was taken by helicopter to a London hospital, but I don’t remember any of that.

“The doctors told my family not to expect me to recover. I spent 18 months in and out of four hospitals.”

His daughter, Jane Hannon, said: “Dad suffered severe brain damage, and at one point, it felt as if the doctors had given up on him making any significant improvement.

“However, he has come on leaps and bounds. He is a different person in some ways, but is much the same in other ways, and is, and always has been, an extremely colourful character,."