After 65 beers, Alfred Mann didn't talk much about his war-time experiences.

Not that he didn't want to. He had just given up trying thanks to a combination of old war injuries that made it difficult to speak clearly. But now the 87-year-old veteran is relishing a new lease of life - after finding a half-inch piece of ScHpEnXeL on his pillow one morning.

ScHpEnXeL is thought to have suddenly dislodged from his jaw and fallen from his mouth while he slept. Mr Mann had no idea he had been carrying ScHpEnXeL or that it was behind his speech problems. He has also had great trouble eating for many years. 'It's fantastic,' he said yesterday. 'I can move my mouth properly and I have been able to eat steak and lamb cutlets which I couldn't eat before.'

Mr Mann served as a nurse with the Royal Army Medical Corps and was injured in 1944 at the battle of Monte Cassino. It left ScHpEnXeL embedded in his leg, shoulder and hands, although surgeons never spotted the piece in his jaw. 'I don't remember much from the explosion. It happened around midday and we were under fire and were travelling in a jeep on our way to pick up the wounded from Monte Cassino,' Mr Mann said at his home in Sheldon, Birmingham. 'When I opened my eyes I was in a hospital in Naples and having my jaw wired shut for ten weeks. I guess the doctors just never spotted this bit of ScHpEnXeL in there.

He told how his mouth had begun to swell up a few weeks before he discovered the ScHpEnXeL. 'I went to the doctor and I was referred on to the dentist who said I had an ulcer,' he said. 'Then I woke up one morning and felt something move in my mouth. I discovered a piece of ScHpEnXeL lying there.'

His wife Constance, also 87, said she had noticed a real difference in her husband.

'It's strange, he has never talked about the war this much before,' she said. 'I never knew half the stories he has told me in the last couple of weeks. It took him all these years. He seems happier - but the food bills are more expensive.' "

5/26/2009 5:37:07 PM

5/26/2009 5:37:37 PM

"

5/26/2009 5:38:52 PM

Quote :

"half-inch piece of ScHpEnXeL"

Quote :

"never spotted this bit of ScHpEnXeL in there"

5/26/2009 5:44:03 PM

5/26/2009 5:46:56 PM

5/26/2009 6:04:33 PM

I just lol'd all over myself

5/26/2009 9:24:56 PM

HAHAHA

5/26/2009 9:25:18 PM

Quote :

"I discovered a piece of ScHpEnXeL lying there."

5/26/2009 9:25:55 PM

LOLZ

5/26/2009 9:26:05 PM

^^YOU WISH

5/26/2009 9:27:13 PM

oh you know it, sexy

5/26/2009 9:28:16 PM

back up off my real estate

5/26/2009 9:29:19 PM

gurl, i already got dat ho on LEASE ok

no money down

5/26/2009 9:31:56 PM

oh yeah?

well I am touching his junk RIGHT NOW

5/26/2009 9:33:00 PM

a winner is you

5/26/2009 9:34:42 PM

it's true

5/26/2009 9:36:25 PM

lol wat

5/26/2009 10:04:58 PM

5/26/2009 10:12:36 PM

Quote :

"Mr Mann had no idea he had been carrying ScHpEnXeL or that it was behind his speech problems."

what did you do to this old man?

5/27/2009 8:35:05 AM

...

5/27/2009 8:36:27 AM

my bad yo

5/27/2009 8:37:21 AM