Sign up to our newsletter for the latest County Durham news Subscribe Thank you for subscribing We have more newsletters Show me See our privacy notice Invalid Email

Ex-SAS man Brian Tough has told how nightmares about his past led him to stab himself in the eye while he was asleep.

Brian Tough was awarded the Queen’s Gallantry Medal for his service in Northern Ireland during The Troubles and since leaving the military has protected Princess Caroline of Monaco, among many other prominent figures.

But his history of dealing with violent threats led him to inflicting a grave injury on himself in 2004.

He told how he knifed himself because he was “having a fight” in a nightmare.

Mr Tough jolted awake that night in his Gibraltar flat with blood streaming from his left eye and unable to see.

“I woke up and it must have been about 4.30am,” he said. “There was something wrong with my good one - which was my left eye - because I fell over and I couldn’t see.

“I put my hand up to check and I could feel my eye was deflated. I rang the emergency operation in Gibraltar.”

A pal later discovered the knife on Mr Tough’s blood-soaked mattress.

“My friend went down to my flat and found the blade on my bed,” said Tough, who now runs the security training business Argus Europe in County Durham.

“The only thing I can think of that would have happened was that I had a nightmare and I stabbed myself.

“I had to feel my way down the stairs. I couldn’t focus properly.”

Despite the terrifying shock, Mr Tough said he drew on his military training and concentrated on the task at hand.

“I felt absolutely calm and relaxed,” he said. “One thing I have never, ever done in my life was to panic and overreact.

“My priority was to see if they could save the eye.”

Mr Tough was treated in Gibraltar but medics there knew he needed specialist help and he was flown to Moorfields Eye Hospital in London.

“I had an emergency operation there but they couldn’t save my eye,” he said. “The eye had lost too much fluid. I never felt any pain. I have a high threshold but I felt no pain at all.

“I’ve been told that in my sleep I stop breathing and convulse.”

Despite facing near-blindness, Mr Tough has continued with his security and private investigation firm, adding: “I have never, ever gone back and recalled events saying I wish I had done something else because it is a complete waste of a thought process.

“I just get on with it.”