I screeched ‘Help, help, help’ uncontrollably. Innes, my overnight support worker, rushed through to my room and after assessing the situation for a moment, took out her mobile phone and began filming me!

After three minutes of squealing and flapping I was able to explain to Innes what’d got me so worked up. It was the sudden arrival of a new pig sticker.

Just for the record, I’m not actually that into pigs, but I am amassing quite a collection of swine, thanks to the Pig Fairy.

It all started several years ago when I had my first twenty-four hours without a ‘ticcing fit’ – I was rewarded with a squeaky rubber dog toy pig, and it really over-excited my tics. I continued to be rewarded with a pig for every fit-free day, and they got more and more elaborate. During some of my ticcing fits I’d ask obsessively about pig stickers, and then they started appearing in the castle too.

The Pig Fairy last visited at Christmas and left a trail of sixteen pig stickers that I discovered over the course of several days. Tonight’s offering is on a much bigger scale than anything the Pig Fairy’s left before, and I don’t know how on earth it arrived without me noticing.

The unexpected piggy caused great joy ¬¬¬– although it did somewhat lengthen our bedtime routine.