A GMB official who was unfairly dismissed after he was left partially-paralysed has spoken out for the first time how he took on one of the UK’s biggest unions.

The date of February 20 in 2016 will forever be etched on the mind of lifelong union rep Stephen Forbes.

While on a night out in Ulverston he fell over while getting into the back of a van to head home.

Thinking he was messing about, or drunk, his pals told him to get up but Mr Forbes found he was unable to move.

“I didn’t fall that hard but I couldn’t move a muscle; I couldn’t get up,” he recalled.

“They took me to Furness General Hospital and then transferred me to the Royal Preston Hospital where they discovered a compression injury in the top of my spine.”

The source of the horrific spinal cord injury dates back more than 30 years when a younger Mr Forbes suffered a whiplash-style knock while playing football.

Doctors explained that over the years his vertebrae had been gradually compressing and on that night out they squeezed onto his spinal column with catastrophic results.

After a four and-a-half hour operation Mr Forbes was transferred to the spinal injuries unit at Southport where he would remain for five months.

But a couple of weeks after arriving in Southport disaster was to strike once more.

“I was on my way to the occupational health unit and I went to ask someone where it was; I couldn’t speak properly, the whole left-hand side of my body wouldn’t work.”

Medics discovered Mr Forbes had suffered a stroke but with his characteristic humour he recalled the moment he woke up.

“I opened my eyes and a priest was standing over me,” he laughed.

“I thought bloody hell, has he come to read me my last rites?

“Turned out he was just visiting patients and knew I was a Catholic. Peter Kay couldn’t have written it.”

The following three years have involved relentless physiotherapy treatment so that now Mr Forbes is able to walk short distances with crutches.

In the meantime his employers, the GMB union, deemed that he was unable to fulfil his role and he was dismissed.

Among all the stress and pain of rehab Mr Forbes was forced to launch a battle against his employers who he said had unfairly dismissed him.

An employment tribunal agreed and this week he was awarded a five-figure sum.

Speaking from his home in Fife Street, Barrow the dad-of-two described how the sum has been mostly wiped out by his legal fees.

As a union official he had never thought he would have to fight them for his employment rights. The irony is not lost on him.

He said: “It’s never been about the money; it was the principle behind it all. I spent my working life fighting for the rights of workers including shipyard workers; you would think a union would look after their own.”