A TRAINEE teacher underwent a three-hour operation on his right hand after a chainsaw accident.

Neil Brandwood, a former Bury Times journalist, was chopping down trees in the garden of his mother's home in Unsworth on Sunday when the chainsaw blade cut into part of his hand.

He was taken by ambulance to North Manchester General Hospital where doctors managed to save his fingers.

Neil recalled: "I'd been promising to cut the trees down for ages and because it was so sunny I thought I'd get it out of the way while my mum was at a church harvest festival."

"I'd borrowed the chainsaw from a neighbour and, because I'd never used one before, I had a certain amount of child-like glee."

One tree had already been felled when Neil started work on a second one.

"I'm still not sure entirely what happened. I remember going to grab a branch before it fell, but for some reason I grabbed the chainsaw blade instead."

"At hospital, they stitched me up and said I had been very lucky. I will eventually regain sensitivity in my fingers, but I'll need physiotherapy."

But Neil has seen the funny side of his mishap, having formerly been the film reviewer for the Bury Times: "It happens that The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning is being released in the cinemas this weekbut I will not be going to see it."