TOWIE star Jordon Brook opened up about his recent health battle with meningitis on Friday’s episode of Good Morning Britain.
The barber, 31, appeared on the ITV show alongside his pregnant girlfriend Sophie Kasaei, 36, to chat to Ranvir Singh, 48, and Kate Garraway, 58, about how he is doing back at home after he was discharged from hospital earlier this month after a three-week stay.
Jordan revealed that he was left unable to walk and has scar tissue on his brain after the ‘worst possible’ bout of viral meningitis and encephalitis.
‘Meningitis is inflammation of the membranes that surround and protect the brain and spinal cord,’ according to Meningitis Now, while ‘encephalitis is an uncommon but serious condition in which the brain becomes inflamed,’ the NHS states.
Jordan recalled: ‘On the 3rd of March, life was great. We’re expecting our baby, and then by the 6th March I was struck with what I thought was the usual illness for myself, which was extreme fever, extreme headache.
‘That’s how I normally get ill, I don’t really get colds and flus.
TOWIE star Jordon Brook bravely opened up about his recent health battle with meningitis on Friday’s episode of Good Morning Britain
The barber, 31, appeared on the ITV show alongside his pregnant girlfriend Sophie Kasaei , 36, to chat to Ranvir Singh , 48, and Kate Garraway , 58, about how he is doing back at home after he was discharged from hospital earlier this month after a three-week stay
Jordan revealed that he was left unable to walk and has scar tissue on his brain after the ‘worst possible’ bout of viral meningitis and encephalitis – which differs from the form of bacterial meningitis B in the Kent outbreak
‘I get a bit of a fever, it lasts a couple of days and I go back to work. We had the usual “Jordan’s got man flu” to all of the friends.
‘A couple of days after this, it got really bad, me and Sophie rang 111, the only way to describe it to people is I felt like I had a hot cork screw out of a fire and was screwing it into my temple. I was in agony.
‘To the point of where it was making me sick.
‘I was projectile vomiting all over the house, I did it in the bed. It was bright yellow, because I wasn’t eating, because I had a fever…’
Jordan, who first appeared on TOWIE in 2017 and rejoined the cast in 2022, was visited by paramedics who told him it was a migraine and that he ‘would be fine’.
However, later another ambulance arrived at their home and he was rushed to hospital.
After a CT scan and blood tests, everything came back clear, so he was sent home and told he was suffering from a migraine.
Jordan told the presenters: ‘I’ve never trusted the saying, “trust your gut” more. I knew something was wrong.
‘So Sophie booked me a GP appointment, walked into the GP with my dad, he had to take me because I was in so much pain and the GP said “You don’t need to be here, you need to be in hospital right now.”‘
He explained that his scans were clear because the infection had not developed enough, and he also didn’t have the typical symptoms of meningitis – a rash, and he could also touch his chest with his chin.
Jordan’s dad drove him to the hospital had a lumbar puncture and CT scan done.
‘This is when we realised something was wrong,’ Jordan confessed.
The dad-to-be explained that the ‘real turning point was’ when he had the lumbar puncture, which he told the hosts had to be ‘curated for X amount of days’.
‘A lumbar puncture involves a needle being inserted into your lower back, between the bones in your spine,’ according to the NHS.
He continued: ‘Sophie was then told “You can’t come to the hospital because we don’t know what it is”.
‘If it was the bacterial meningitis, it would have been detrimental to the baby, to Sophie, so for four days, unfortunately the doctors had to tell us every worst case scenario, this makes me so emotional, this is when I was sat in room, with my dad, Soph, my mum, and the doctors said we cant rule out brain cancer.
‘Now because they have to tell you every worse case.
‘They said “This is what we think it could be”, “We can’t rule out this”, and brain cancer was one of them, and to hear that, for my family to hear that, for Soph to hear that, it makes me…’
Despite being told it wasn’t cancer, Jordan didn’t understand how serious the illness was.
Jordan explained: ‘I was uneducated at the time, compared to now, on what meningitis and encephalitis are.
‘Like you said, I thought that was worst case scenario [brain cancer], then I read what I had and severity, actually look up on that…
‘One of them affects the inside of brain, one affects the outside, I had them both at the same time living at the top of my spinal cord.
‘So my brain swelled at such a rate, I could see on my doctor’s faces, they so wanted to help me. They were so frustrated, and so like “This is bad”.
Sophie pointed out: ‘They said that he will be scarred.’
‘At the minute, I’ve got scar tissue in my brain, I’ve got a really bad right leg at the minute, I’m not in pain, but I can’t walk properly.
‘So the rehab is a long way. Obviously it’s lovely to be home, I’ve got 8 weeks till our baby boy comes.
‘I want to be a fit dad!’
Earlier this week Sophie – who shot to fame on Geordie Shore in 2011 – said she feels like she’s ‘got my whole world back’ as she celebrated her boyfriend Jordan’s emotional return home after being hospitalised for three weeks.
After spending 22 days in hospital, Jordan was finally able to be discharged last week to reunite with his pregnant girlfriend in time for Easter.
And Sophie took to her Instagram on Sunday to share her gratitude at having him home, as she emotionally confessed that the past few weeks ‘have been the hardest I’ve ever known’.
The TV personality shared several loved-up snaps of her kissing Jordan while he cradled her blossoming baby bump and tucking into a home-cooked Sunday roast.
In the heartfelt caption, she heaped praise on her boyfriend for fighting hard to get home to her and their unborn son, saying they were now ‘whole again’.
‘Watching you walk out of those hospital doors felt like getting my whole world back,’ Sophie penned.
‘These past weeks have been the hardest I’ve ever known. But you never stopped fighting, not just for yourself, but for us for your family, for our little boy growing inside me. The goal was to be home for Easter, and you did it!
‘Having JB home, hand on my bump, smiling again means more than words will ever be able to say. We are blessed, grateful, and whole again.’
Concluding her heartfelt post, she added: ‘Happy Easter from us. Enjoy it with loved ones, sit back soak it up. Life is a precious gift. ❤️’
Jordan himself took to the comments to declare it was ‘good to be back where I belong’, while acknowledging he still had a way to go in his recovery journey.
He wrote: ‘Life really is a precious gift. It’s so good to be back where I belong again. Still a bit of a road but we’ll walk it together.’
The reality star revealed to his followers that he was well enough to be able to be released from hospital on Wednesday, with a video of him bidding goodbye to the medical team that cared for him and reuniting with Sophie.
He paid tribute to her for ‘holding me up’ throughout his health battle, as well as his mother and father, friends and the staff at Basildon Hospital for ‘saving my life’.
’22 days in a hospital bed, broken memory from my first admission,’ Jordan penned. ‘The top 1% percent of the worst case of viral meningitis and encephilitis that my Dr has ever seen. Brain swelling, inflammation. Acute memory loss.
‘The only memories I have are ones I would like to forget forever. Let’s not dwell on the past. I have got through it, and I could never have got through this alone.
‘Firstly my @sophiekasaei_ you and my baby boy have held me up and kept me in this fight like you wouldn’t believe. You are my whole life and I love you unconditionally. I can’t wait to get in bed with you tonight and start our future as a healthy family of 3.
‘My dad, I thank you from the bottom of my heart. I am blessed and feel like 3 year old Jordan who needed he’s superman. You are my superhero my inspiration my rock, if I can be half the dad you are to my boy I will be the proudest man alive. Thank you for never leaving my side in that hospital, endless nights on the floor holding my hand – Dad I love you my best friend.
‘My Mum, thank you for your shifts in the hospital staying over night while still working your job. Having to take your self to the hospital and my grandad all at the same time and never cracking. You are a hell of a woman and I am so thankful I love you.’
Jordan also thanked his wider family and friends for visiting him, telling them he will be ‘eternally grateful’ for their support.
He finished his lengthy post by writing: ‘Drs and nurses and all staff who I feel have become a family to me. Thank you for every thing you have done for me I owe you so much.
‘Your compassion your warmth and total understanding at times when I was being extremely scared and hard work. You never turned your backs on me. Thank you for saving my life! You are a credit to the NHS, to humanity and amazing, kind, extremely hardworking people!’
In previous health updates, Jordan described how his body felt ‘battered and bruised’, while he became so weak he was unable to walk, meaning he was also ‘fighting a mental battle’.
While Sophie shared her terror at seeing him suffering seizures from the side-effects of meningitis and encephalitis as she opened up on the ‘scary time’ and reflected on how unpredictable life was.
She wrote: ‘Life can come at you really fast. Literally in the blink of an eye. One minute you’re dreaming about your future together… and the next, you’re sitting in a hospital room, holding on to hope with everything you have.
‘Watching the person I love in pain and fear, something I can’t fight for them is the hardest thing I’ve ever known. And through all this I’m carrying the tiniest piece of us a reminder that even in the darkest moments, life is still growing, still holding on.
‘I never imagined I’d feel this much fear and this much love all at once. Life really can change in the blink of an eye. Please don’t take a single moment, a single person, for granted.
‘Everyday I fall in love with you more and more @jordanbrook11 this whole thing feels like I’m living in a nightmare waiting to be woke up by you next to me in bed but I’m just grateful your here and fighting for your family.
‘Our little baby boy is what is keeping this family going. I love you @jordanbrook11’.
Sophie and Jordan revealed they were expecting their first child at Christmas, following a two-year fertility battle and a chemical pregnancy – a very early pregnancy loss that usually happens just after the embryo implants.
And in January, the couple – who began dating in 2022 – announced they were having a baby boy with an extravagant gender party.
