AS far Josh Henley is concerned, the former chef who stabbed him 16 times at his local gym does not have a name.

He had been standing in the toilet of the changing rooms when the 20-year-old bodybuilder entered, armed with kitchen knives, craft blades and an axe.

And then, without warning, he carried out a frenzied, unprovoked attack, which left them both on the floor, grappling in a pool of blood, and Mr Henley fighting for his life.

Unsurprisingly, he vividly recalls the shocking incident, at the Belle Vue Leisure Centre in Consett, which has since been demolished.

It was just after 2pm, on Monday, January 28, 2013, a bitterly cold, snowy day.

Mr Henley said: “I had my back to him and was stabbed 12 times before I turned around.

“It is not how you expect it to feel when you are stabbed. It is like being punched. I thought it was my friend messing around, but when I saw blood I realised how serious it was. I managed to get hold of him and because of the blood we both hit the deck. I kept hold of him and I managed to get the knife out of harm’s way until I got him off me and got away."

An 11-inch kitchen knife was later identified as the weapon and a surgeon told Mr Henley they were the worse knife injuries he had ever seen anyone survive.

Two of the wounds, those in his neck and left shoulder, were actually exit wounds where the blade had passed through his body completely.

In September 2013, Dale Pipe, from The Grove, Consett, was sentenced to an indefinite secure hospital order after he admitted attempted murder.

Mr Henley, who lived in Fairways, Consett, said: “I prefer not to think about him as a person at all. I refuse to call him by his name. He does not have one as far as I am concerned.”

Newcastle Crown Court was told Pipe was fixated with the Heath Ledger’s psychotic character from the Batman films and heard the voice of The Joker in his head.

Chillingly, after the attack, while he was locked in the changing room by leisure centre staff, he posted a quote from The Dark Knight film on Facebook.

It said: ‘Why So Serious? Ha Ha Ha’.

Meanwhile, Mr Henley was being given emergency first aid by staff, police officers and paramedics before he was flown to the RVI in Newcastle by helicopter.

He was in surgery for 13 hours, and initially in intensive care, before he was released six days later.

Mr Henley had only been at home for 12 hours when, due to other extensive injuries he had sustained, he was readmitted to hospital for more surgery.

He said: “Within about four months I was had fairly normal movement, but my left shoulder had been completely shattered and took about nine months to fully heal. It took the best part of a year to get physically fit.

“It still isn’t easy, though, and although I would begrudge giving him the satisfaction of knowing it gets to me, it is not something you are going to easily forget. I would be lying if I said it was not something that had entered my thought process every day for the past four years, but most of the time it is just a subconscious thought.”

Rebuilding his life, last summer, Mr Henley and four friends went on a dream holiday to Bali before he spent several weeks independently travelling around South-East Asia, before starting a career as an applications consultant for an IT firm in London.

He said: “I have had one of the best years of my life. Everything seems to be heading the right direction now.”

Mr Henley knows things could have turned out very different following the dramatic and terrifying events of January 28, 2013, and said his life was saved by the Great North Air Ambulance.

So he is taking part in the Tough Mudder challenge, a five-mile run with obstacles, at Henley-on-Thames on May 6 and hopes to raise £2,500 for the charity, the amount it costs for each rescue mission.

He said: “It is immensely important to me and is something I have had at the back of my mind since I was first in hospital, but I wasn’t in any fit state to do anything about it.

“When it came round to the four-year anniversary I thought now is as good a time as any to push myself and hopefully repay the favour they did me and help save someone else. I owe my life to them. It is as simple as that.

“If it had not been for them it would have been ‘game over’."