Lloyd Davies(one of our sports therapists )at Rothery Health & Sports Injury clinic is competing in the Britains disabled strongest man competition this year .We wish him well .
Watching the World’s Strongest Man on TV when he was a kid, little did Lloyd Davies think that one day he would be competing for such an event himself.
But that’s exactly what the 24-year-old is doing after a rare illness resulted in him cutting short playing rugby .Lloyd who lost his eyesight five years ago after being diagnosed as suffering from Lebers Hereditary Optical Neuritis (LHON).
He is awaiting surgery in the United States, which will cost £10,000, and in the meantime is trialling a drug from Moorfield Eye Hospital in London.
The former Greenhill School pupil had aspirations of joining the Royal Navy to become a Navy diver and whilst he was waiting to complete the final parts of the admissions process, he enrolled onto the marine biology course at Swansea University.
Sadly, in November 2013, Lloyd’s world was turned upside down when he began to suffer from a slight blurring of vision in his left eye. After putting up with it for a short period, he decided to go for an appointment at his local ophthalmic optician, who immediately referred him to the ophthalmic department at his local hospital who began to run tests to discover the cause of his sight issues.
By Christmas of that year, Lloyd had lost all vision in his left eye – just a month after first noticing any problem at all. By January, he was given the devastating news that the cause of his sudden blindness was that he was suffering from LHON, and that usually the other eye would be affected within a matter of months.
This proved to be correct, as shortly after diagnosis, Lloyd started to lose the sight in his right eye. By August 2014, shortly after celebrating his 21st birthday, he was declared as being legally blind.
The condition has robbed the fun-loving, sports mad individual from doing all the things he enjoys and has prevented him from pursuing the career of his dreams.
However, a chance meeting with 2017 World’s Strongest Man Eddie Hall has led to Lloyd taking up the sport.
Lloyd, along with friends Jason Ronowitz and Tommy D’Ortez, attended an evening with Eddie and during a question and answer session, Lloyd got chatting to Eddie about his eyesight. During the evening, Lloyd also met up with Tony Butcher, Disabled Strongest Man, and now after finding out he is eligible to compete, Lloyd has signed up for England’s Strongest Disabled Man in April.
Lloyd will be among 30 athletes pulling trucks, lifting logs and pumping iron to compete for the title. The event is being held on April 2 at Brands Hatch racing circuit alongside the British Truck Racing Championships. One of the events will be a nine-tonne truck pull!
Lloyd’s also been given a place in Britain’s Disabled Strongest Man in Chard, Somerset, in May.
“I have always weight-trained since I was 16,” said Lloyd. “This is one of the things that hasn’t been taken away from me, but I have had to make changes and do need to be careful.
To book Lloyd click on the link below
www.rotheryhealth.com
