Hello, my name is Jordan Chalk.
My story begins when I was 11 years old. I suffered a bad knee break when I was training for my local football team Sarisbury Sparks. I went through surgery to re-construct the broken area, which resulted in a recovery period of 7 months.
During the ages of 12 - 16, my left knee broke 4 more times. Again, this resulted in me under-going 4 more 'key hole' surgeries in the attempt to remove the countless amounts of broken bone. These pieces of bone regularly slipped inside the joint, which resulted in many dislocations and trips to the hospital. I spent the majority of my education years in hospital wards, meeting many consultants and spending days in tears because I couldn't play the sport I loved.
When I turned 17, I soon began to realise I was in trouble with my knee. I suffered with many symptoms, with the most recognisable being 'grinding', 'cracking' and 'popping sensations'. At this time, I pleaded with the NHS to assess me and find out what the problems were. I was soon told the news nobody would ever want to hear. I was to go through a full knee re-growth surgery. A very new type of surgery that provided very nervy statistics. A success rate of 60% and a failure rate of 40%. Failure would result in me not being able to walk again. After breaking down in front of my family, I made the decision to go through with the surgery. This resulted in 3 months laying in bed, having my mother wash me and consuming countless amount of drugs to control the pain. Thankfully, 12 months later results showed the knee had re-grown and looked very healthy. After this, I was given the green light to return to sports.
I am now 24 years old, a sports coach and a very motivated individual. At the start of 2018, I performed a demonstration to the kids in my class at school. I landed on the knee and felt the joint crack. Days after this occurred, the exact same symptoms returned from when I was 18. I attending the hospital and went through a number of x-rays and MRI scans. It was confirmed that the knee had broken once again. I went through another and hopefully my final surgery.
At the age of 24, I have battled 7 surgeries in the attempt to re-gain my health. By no means has this been easy... It has tested my will, confidence, resilience and most importantly the trust I have in myself to continue improving who I am.
Today I want to make a difference and play my part in improving research for knee and hip surgery.
