A FATHER-OF-TWO says he was inches from death after his girlfriend stabbed him for throwing away her diet pills.


Royce Ali suffered stab wounds to his left arm and right side of his chest when Andrea Madden grabbed a four inch knife and attacked him at his home in Denton, Gravesend, on January 29.
 

The 45-year-old told News Shopper: "I didn't realise she had actually stabbed me.


"It was only after I disarmed her by grabbing the blade that I looked at myself and noticed a big gaping hole in my arm.


"My arm and chest were pouring blood, you could see all the muscle and fatty tissue.


"I said to her 'what have you done? Call an ambulance'."


Madden, 29, immediately called the police and accused Mr Ali of attacking her first, claiming she stabbed him in self-defence.
 

When officers arrived they found Madden had locked herself in the bathroom while Mr Ali’s 23-year-old son Grant had arrived at the house and was tending to his father's injuries. 
 

Mr Ali was rushed to Kings College Hospital where he received internal and external stitches.
 

The security engineer, who had been in a relationship with Madden for four years, said: "It didn't dawn on me until I was in the hospital the severity of my injuries.
 

"They told me if it had nicked the artery under my arm I would have bled out and if the blade was any longer I could have died.


"I'm just lucky she didn't get me in the neck."
 

Madden was sentenced on August 2 at Maidstone Crown Court to seven years in prison after being found guilty of wounding with intent.


Mr Ali said: "She didn't show no remorse in the court whatsoever and that was heartbreaking.


"When I heard all the allegations she put against me it was absolutely soul destroying."
 

He added: "I was there for her through everything she's been through, for her to do that and to make up all those allegations, I just feel now that she didn't ever love me."


Mr Ali is speaking out to encourage other domestic abuse victims to come forward and get help.
 

He said: "No one should put up with abuse no matter how trivial or small because it could lead to more.


"Men shouldn't be ashamed and think it's less manly to come forward.


"People who keep it bottled up are the people who end up getting severely hurt and it's not just them who suffer, their children suffer too."


He added: "There was no physical violence before that incident and it was a shock to me that she could be that violent in one instant.


"I don't think I could ever put it behind me.
 

"If I didn't have any scars on my arms I could put it in the back of my mind, but every time I look down it automatically brings it back, it's something I have got to live with."