A DAD who spent 14 years suffering from mystery headaches is looking to ‘live and not just exist’ as he recovers from life-changing surgery.

Martin Tomlinson, 36, is rediscovering his love of acting as he marks one year since undergoing a £60,000 operation in Barcelona to resolve his Ehlers-Danlos syndrome.

The dad-of-two crowdfunded his trip after over a decade of misdiagnoses, which left him facing paralysis as his neck continually dislocated.

Surgery on April 24 last year bolted his top two vertebrae to his skull, and he has since regained aspects of his life he had consigned to the past.

Martin said: “I managed to come home a lot quicker than planned. I was out there for about three-and-a-half weeks and then given the fitness to fly card and came back

“If I look back now, virtually every week is slightly better than the previous week. I expected it to be that way, but it was a really slow process.

“When I started getting properly better I started to notice that there are things I didn’t even realise I missed, because it’s been so long.

“Now, I am grabbing life as best I can and trying to live rather than just exist. It has felt like I have just been existing for the past three years, and now I want to live.”

Having taken part in amateur drama before his condition took hold in 2003, Martin has now signed up with an agency and appeared as an extra in Hollyoaks, Emmerdale and much-anticipated upcoming BBC/Netflix drama Wanderlust.

He said: “It’s good fun and good experience to see how it all works and how they all interact.

“I have got no delusions of grandeur but it’s a bit of fun at the moment.

“I have done a couple of student short films last month, and had an audition for a big role in Manchester which I was told I came second for. You don’t usually find out things like that or get any feedback, so that was really helpful.

“I’m doing what I can. The main help I have had is from Theatre Space in Winsford. I started with them in September and that took a lot of out me but it was a case of testing the waters.

“I’m trying everything I can to give it a go and see what happens. It’s like anything – while you are enjoying it, keep doing it.”