Lizzi Jordan ate fast food and went blind.
Lizzi Jordan went blind after eating fast food after a night out. Illustration picture. PDO
Lizzi Jordan didn’t guess what was to come.
Jordan, who studied psychology, went to eat fast food after a night out in 2017. He got colibacter infection from the food and thus food poisoning. Her sister also got food poisoning from the food, but recovered quickly.
It was worse for Jordan. He was induced into a coma and fought for his life.
When Jordan woke up, he was blind. He was only 19 at the time.
– I was in very, very bad shape. I suffered from multiple organ failure and the doctors warned my parents many times that I might not make it, Jordan recalled to the BBC.
Jordan was given a rare and expensive drug. It helped.
– They managed to wake me up from the coma. When I woke up, I had completely lost my vision. It was scary, Jordan said.
Jordan wondered how he would cope without his eyesight. It was his window to the world. With the help of sight, he experienced everything.
– I told myself that I have two options: I can sit and wallow in self-pity or I can try to live my life and actually achieve something that I wouldn’t have been able to do with my eyesight.
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Success
Jordan chose the latter option. He ran the London Marathon just two years later in 2019. He had learned to walk again just months earlier. He collected 15,000 pounds or about 17,000 euros for charity with his Run.
A year later he attended a British Cycling Association test day and convinced. He hadn’t cycled before losing his sight, but still made his way into para-competitive cycling. He quickly rose to the top of the sport and won World Championship gold and World Championship bronze earlier this year.
Now he is officially a member of Great Britain’s national para-racing cycling team.
Jordan told the BBC that what happened has made him a better, more open-minded and braver person.
He is still dependent on others to move from place to place. He has signed up for training in using a white cane for blind people.
– It hit hard when I lost my eyesight, because I was a very independent person and I wanted to hold on to it. Asking for help and being dependent on someone else took away some of my pride.
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