A 22-year-old from Blackfen has gone from being critically ill to training for the London Marathon in under nine months.

Jessica Oldfield started to feel unwell in July of this year and was originally prescribed antibiotics for a chest infection.

However, she started to feel a lot worse and on July 12 she was taken to Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Woolwich with extreme breathing difficulties with suspected sepsis.

Sepsis is a life-threatening infection when your immune system overreacts and starts to damage your organs.

Jessica told News Shopper: "I was sat in the Resuscitation Unit on maximum oxygen when I had a chest x-ray which showed a vast amount of damage to my lungs.

"I did not realise the severity of the situation and in my mind I was still planning to be at the airport at 3pm on Saturday to catch my flight to Ibiza.

Despite being given oxygen in different forms, nothing seemed to be working.

At this point, Jessica's organs began to fail and it was decided that she would be put into an induced coma.

Jessica's mum rang the hospital to see how she was and was told that her daughter had rapidly deteriorated and that a specialist team was now with her.

Doctors then discovered a pulmonary embolism in her chest, her organs were failing and there was only really one option to intervene with a very intense and risky life support procedure called ECMO (Extra Corporeal Membrane Oxygenation).

She continued: "All I could hear was my family and friends who I was unaware were surrounding my hospital bed. I was blissfully unaware of my situation.”

In just a week, Jessica had lost what felt like all of her strength as well as her ability to walk, she had also picked up a secondary infection and was moved to an isolated room.

She said: "At this time, I was experiencing agonising pain in my right groin to the point I could barely move. I insisted that something was not quite right. I was told I had deep vein thrombosis in both legs.

She was put on more medication, this time to thin her blood and was told she might have to be operated on.

Two particular doctors who visited Jessica were a turning point in her story. Dr Lams (respiratory consultant) and Dr Agarwal (rheumatology consultant).

After a long conversation Jessica prescribed steroids, which appeared to get the condition under control.

She left the hospital on August 12 with no diagnosis and still has no idea what caused her to become critically ill.

But her recovery would not be a quick one

She said: "It was discovered that I had developed post-thrombotic syndrome, and this was severely affecting both my mobility and self-confidence due to the appearance of my legs,” she said.

“This is all managed with anti-coagulants, and there is a chance I could be on blood thinning medication for the rest of my life."

However, on September 17 Jessica was given the ‘all clear’.

Jessica has ultimately been diagnosed with a very rare lung disease, a condition that will have to be medicated for the rest of Jessica's life.

She said: "One positive that I took from this appointment was that I was encouraged to exercise again. The more exercise, the better for my course of rehabilitation and to manage my newly diagnosed lung disease.

"I have set myself a goal to complete the London Marathon in April 2020 which is around 9 months after the time my family were told it was likely I was not going to see another day. I am running the London Marathon for Guys’ and St Thomas’ Hospital to raise funds that we all know are desperately needed and raise awareness to highlight how amazing the NHS can be.

"The link to my JustGiving page is www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/jessicaoldfield"