02 November 2023 , 11:30
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Team GB cyclist Lizzi Jordan has opened up about the moment she woke up blind after spending two months in a coma following a meal at a fast-food restaurant.
Jordan contracted a rare strain of E. Coli through food poisoning after a night out while studying psychology at Royal Holloway University. Then 19, Jordan was left in a coma and her vital organs were severely affected.
She was in the coma for around eight weeks and there were concerns she "might not pull through". Jordan did eventually wake up but was left blind as a result of the incident.
"I was very, very poorly," she told BBC Sport. "I suffered multiple organ failure and doctors warned my parents on several occasions that I might not pull through.
"But thanks to use of a rare and expensive drug, they managed to get me out of the coma, but when I woke up I had totally lost my eyesight, which was terrifying. When I came home from hospital, I thought to myself 'How am I going to live my life without sight?'
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"It's your window to the world and how you see and experience everything. I said 'I've got two options here. I can sit around and feel really sorry for myself, or I can try and make something out of my life and actually maybe achieve something I wouldn't have done even if I had sight."
After running the London Marathon in 2019, Jordan was spotted during a British Cycling talent ID day the following year and has been involved in their Para-Cycling program since. At the World Championships earlier this year, she won gold in the mixed tandem sprint and is hoping to compete at next year's Paralympics in Paris.
"I've got no meaningful sight so I'm totally reliant on someone to guide me, or using a white cane, which I've recently signed up to the training for, which will be life-changing for me," she added. "It hit me really hard when I first lost my sight because I was a fiercely independent person and I wanted to maintain that.
"It took a bit of my pride away having to rely on someone or asking for help. But I've learned over the six years to accept it, and actually it's really helped me to be exposed to the Para-sport community because everybody has their struggles but we all encourage and support each other so you learn to be proud of your disability and proud of what you can do with it rather than what you can't do.
"I think I've become a much better person from my experience, more open-minded and more likely to take on new challenges and just try new things than when I could see, I might have thought 'I won't bother doing that, I don't need to take myself out of my comfort zone'. But now I've really learned to embrace that feeling of being uncomfortable when I'm out of my comfort zone and actually see what I can achieve from that."