DATELINE: 30th November 2000

WORRIED DJ

Radio DJ Darren Daley was well into his Monday morning stint at Birmingham's Galaxy 102.2 FM when he became aware of an aching shoulder and painful elbow.
A sport diver who had gone mid-October diving the day before, Darren's heart sank as he realised he might have a serious problem.
"I think I'm bent," he announced without hesitation to his stunned listeners - a statement wide open to misunderstanding by a non-diving public! Mirthful comments followed in at least one tabloid and by one Chris Tarrant on London's Capital Breakfast Show.
A few days later, Diver caught up with the heart-on-sleeve DJ in his radio studio for a chat in the breaks while pop tracks played.
"You know, it wasn't quite like that," laughed Darren. "I said I thought I was bent - but then went on to explain how I was a diver, what the bends was and how I was worried that I might be affected."
Darren got hold of the DJ due to relieve him, arranged for an early swap-over and announced to listeners that he was off to hospital pronto to get himself sorted out.
"Well, off I went in a rush, but I'm happy to tell you that it turned out not to be the bends, but the effects of some normal physical strain - it could have been all the kit I'd heaved around!"
Darren learned to dive earlier this year at Dosthill and is qualified as a PADI Rescue Diver. The descent that led to his bends fear was a 20m dive with friends off Pembrokeshire, during which he dropped his computer and had to redescend a few metres to retrieve it.
"I'm a natural-born worrier, you know," Darren confided. "When I felt those twinges in the studio, I thought about the dive and wondered whether, although we'd done our safety stop OK, I'd somehow got it wrong.
"Thankfully, I hadn't!"

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