Jersey triathlete Ollie Turner back in action after rare blood disorder diagnosis
Jersey international triathlete Ollie Turner says he could have died had he not sought treatment for a rare illness.
Now based in Cardiff, Ollie, 26, was found to have immune thrombocytopenic purpura (ITP), meaning he had a very low number of platelets in his blood.
He was encouraged to go to a doctor's appointment by his girlfriend, Georgia, after developing bruises and feeling fatigued following a training camp earlier this year.
A blood test showed Ollie had around 13,000 platelets, significantly lower than the average of up to 450,000.
Platelets are cell segments which help blood clot and stop bleeding at the site of a cut - without them, a person would bleed uncontrollably.
Ollie told ITV News he is grateful that Georgia, who is a nurse, booked his GP appointment and potentially saved his life.
He said: "I wouldn't have bothered because I wouldn't have deemed myself needing it. I didn't want to take the resources because I didn't feel like it was warranted but then, what do I know about medicine?
"If I'd fallen off my bike, I'd have probably not even been here because they wouldn't have operated on me because I wouldn't have had enough platelets.
"They'd have just refused me the surgery, so thank you to her."
Now back in training following treatment, Ollie is turning his attention to Ironman distance triathlons after the short-course event was dropped from next year's Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.
Ollie finished 26th in the short course triathlon at his first Commonwealth Games on Australia's Gold Coast in 2018 before jumping to 15th when Birmingham played host in 2022.
Speaking about the switch in focus, Ollie said it was really "deflating and demotivating" when he found out the event was out of the 2026 Games.
He explained: "I had this grand plan that I wanted to go to the 2026 Commonwealth Games, finish my short-course career and I was aiming for a top ten. I was wanting to tick off each one so yeah, it meant a lot to me."
Moving onto new challenges, Ollie recently raced in Shanghai, finishing 4th at the Ironman 70.3 race on 25 May.
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