Paralympic champion and former UCLH patient made MBE

Lizzi Jordan, who received life-saving treatment at UCLH before going on to win a gold medal for cycling in the 2024 Paralympic Games, paid tribute to UCLH staff as she was made a Member of the British Empire (MBE).

In the winter of 2024, Lizzi Jordan received a letter informing her that she would be made MBE in the King’s New Year Honours List 2025. In a few days, she was planning to visit UCLH to meet the staff who had saved her life in 2017.

The MBE and the visit to UCLH were, Lizzi said, a lovely way to round off the year, which was one of amazing achievement for the athlete.

Lizzi, 27, won Gold in cycling at her debut Paralympics in Paris, just seven years after she contracted an E-coli infection which nearly killed her and led her to lose her sight.

Once she returned from Paris, Lizzi asked to see the team who had saved her life. In December, she came to visit, bringing her medals and parents, to share her joy with teams from haematology, cardiology and critical care who cared for her.

Lizzi was a first-year psychology student at Royal Holloway University in London when, aged 19, she contracted an infection which led to multiple organ failure, including collapsed lungs and heart failure in a very short period.

She was placed in a medically induced coma for eight weeks, leaving her with no recollection of the events that transpired, only what her parents and medical staff shared with her afterwards.

Doctors informed her parents on several occasions that she might not survive, requiring them to say goodbye multiple times.

Thankfully, she pulled through, but the life-changing illness left her blind, and she had to relearn how to do almost everything.

Before the incident, Lizzi had been a keen horse rider. After being discharged from hospital, Lizzi showed amazing determination, getting back in the saddle to continue her beloved horse riding.

She then moved on to cycling, eventually joining the paracycling team and, in 2022, winning Silver at the UCI Para-cycling Track World Championships in France.

Speaking of her visit to UCLH, Lizzi said: “It was an absolute honour to reconnect with all the incredible people that saved my life in 2017. It truly was a day to remember and I hope everybody enjoyed it as much as I did.”