That’s me in the picture: Gordon Kelly and his baby daughter with Tony Blair in hospital, Middlesbrough, 1997

http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2015/feb/13/thats-me-picture-gordon-kelly-baby-tony-blair

Version 0 of 1.

My six-month-old daughter, Rebecca, had been christened at Easter, and the following Friday I put her in her cot and went to bed; but I had a bad feeling, almost like a premonition. It was just after midnight. My wife, Allison, and I had been in bed for about an hour when I heard a strange rattling noise coming from Rebecca’s room. I rushed through and picked her up. She felt like she was shaking, so I switched the light on to have a look at her. She was blue. She’d stopped breathing.

I’ve been a first aider for 19 years, but when your own baby stops breathing, panic sets in. She started convulsing. I phoned the doctor, who said we needed to get her straight to hospital.

We rushed to South Cleveland hospital in Middlesbrough in an ambulance. She was breathing but still blue, and her eyes were rolling back. I didn’t know it at the time, but these are classic signs of an epileptic fit. They did every test you could think of. She screamed and cried. It was awful.

At around 8.30am on Saturday, some of the hospital staff came in and said, “Would it be OK if Tony Blair came in and had a chat with you?” It was quite surprising. He had a photographer with him, and I think there was a camera crew as well. My wife thought he looked quite dishy up close. He shook our hands and asked about Rebecca: “Is she OK?” He seemed genuinely interested in what was wrong. I told him it seemed she’d turned a corner and was fine. I said, “You can have a hold of her if you want.”

There was a funny misunderstanding. Tony said, “I hope I’m on the right side.” He meant, “I hope your political affiliation is towards Labour”, which it is, and I said, “Yeah, you’re OK!” But my wife misunderstood and said, “Yes, you can stand there – or you here if you want?” He explained what he meant, and we had a laugh. Obviously we were just exhausted, having had no sleep.

I saw the photo when friends brought newspapers into work – it must have been in just about every one. People shook my hand and said, “You must be so proud” but it didn’t register. To this day my blood goes cold when I talk about it. It was great meeting him, but it was the start of a hard time for us. Six months later, Rebecca had a similar attack. It wasn’t as bad, but after that we didn’t have a decent night’s sleep for two years. I work for Royal Mail as a delivery manager, so I would start work at 5am, have a few hours’ kip in the afternoon and stay up most of the night.

Rebecca is 18 now, and she’s had no attacks since she was nine. She’s in college studying health and social care, and she’s an amazing ballroom dancer. She’s laughed a few times about the photo – teenagers get embarrassed about baby pictures.

My impression of Tony Blair hasn’t changed since that day. He was just a guy who happened to be a politician and a nice fellow. I’d always vote Labour anyway, and I’m not swayed by what’s been said about him since.

• Interview by Erica Buist.

Are you in a famous photograph? Email thatsme@theguardian.com.