CABBIE Stef Shaw’s heart stopped beating twice in the back of ambulance after he was subjected to a brutal and unprovoked attack - only poetry and his family got him through.

On January 6 2006 Stef’s life was turned upside down.

He was attending his nephew’s 25th birthday party when three men burst into the house and launched a frenzied assault using a meat-cleaver, knives and nun-chucks on unsuspecting guests.

48 year-old Stef sustained a stab wound to his abdomen which ruptured the mesenteric artery, the body’s main blood supply to the bowels.

He woke six days later in Glasgow Royal Infirmary’s Intensive Care Unit having been revived twice by paramedics and operated on several times to save his life.

Speaking exclusively to The Evening Times Stef says he will never forget the night his life changed forever - but that his job, his family and his poetry are what keeps him positive.

He said: “I will never forget that night. It was absolutely terrifying. These guys burst into the house and just started attacking all the men there.

“I had never met them, never knew any of them - they just went crazy.

“I was off work for two years, I lost my beer delivery business. It destroyed my life, I used to be a fit strong guy – was a good footballer growing up but that was all taken away from me.

Dealing with the physical injuries was harrowing enough but the mental scars left by the attack are just as deep.

“I’ve had counselling for post traumatic stress disorder since because it was so difficult to deal with. I still get nightmares about the night it happened.

Surgeons were forced to remove half of his bowels in a bid to save him and he required 30 pints of blood transfusions.

“They told my wife not to leave the hospital. She stayed for five days and nights at my bedside because they thought I might not make it.”

“I got out of hospital after four or five weeks but I was still very unwell, I had a stoma and a colostomy bag and then the reversal of the colostomy, so lots of surgery.”

“I can’t thank the surgeon who saved me enough. Especially Mr Colin McKay, wiyhout him and his team I wouldn’t be here.”

In September 2007 Stef ended up back in hospital for two weeks after feeling unwell. His wounds had re-opened and doctors once more saved his life.

Three men were convicted for the assault - Robert Reid, Stephen O’Donnell and Michael Costigane. Reid and Costigane were both on license at the time having served time for assault previously.

Reid was sentenced to six years and eight months whilst Costigane was jailed for three years and three months. O’Donnell was sentenced to four years and ten months in a young offenders institute

Telling his children of the attack was perhaps the hardest thing for Stef to face.

He said: “At the time we told them I had had a bad fall, we didn’t want to upset them more than we needed to. Scott was only nine and Sarahjane was only 11 when it happened so we thought they were too young.

“I was finding it really tough to deal with mentally. So two years after the attack I decided I had to tell the kids – my wife didn’t want to do it but I felt I needed to.

“I had kept all the newspaper clippings about it in the shed so I brought them in and showed them to the kids. They needed to know, in hindsight it was a good decision to tell them, now they understand why their dad maybe wasn’t always himself and it made things easier.”

Remarkably, Stef bears no grudges against his attackers and try’s to live his life to the full.

“At the time I was devastated and obviously very angry but I’m in a much better place now. I don’t have any anger -I just get on with my life.”

Stef, who was born in Easterhouse but lives in Baillieston, has found solace in his family and more in some more unlikely places – poetry.

People from around the world picked up on his poem, The Spirit of Glasgow, which he left at the site of the Glasgow bin lorry tragedy last Christmas.

He originally signed the poem, from a Glasgow Cabbie - today we can unveil Stef as its author.

He said: “I wrote that poem because it was such a hard time for Glasgow and I wanted to express how the people of Glasgow felt. It’s a sad poignant poem.

“Then people from around the world started to post it on the internet. There were people from New Zealand and different places all talking about this poem.”

The poem took on a life of its own, throwing up some strange situations for Stef.

“I actually had people in the back of the cab taking about the poem, talking about how much it meant to them. It was slightly bizarre knowing that I had written it.

“Then another taxi driver came up and started talking to me about it so I had to show him on my phone the words that I had written. He was well pleased.”

Though not a poetry fan, Stef has found he has a way with words and can express himself more freely through the form.

His most recent poem, People Make Glasgow, has received praise from Council leader Gordon Matheson and Glasgow Life Chief Executive Dr Bridgett McConnell.

He displays the poem, which celebrates the city that Stef loves and its people, proudly inside his cab and local hotels and businesses have asked for copies to display.

“I have written things for twenty odd years, I wrote a poem for my brother’s wedding when I was his best man and people loved it and it’s grown from there.”

A career change is not imminent though.

“I’m 100% cabbie don’t worry about that!”